Gambling soccer–a description of an informal football practice in South African townships

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to document a popular football practice widespread in South African townships–gambling soccer. It is based on an ethnographic set of in situ observations, interviews, photographs and recordings that were collected during four two-week visits in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Using that documentary basis, the article shows how the activity is usually organized and conducted in the Kayamandi township, a part of the Stellenbosch municipality, in the Western Cape region. The aim is to provide a ‘typical’ description of the activity, i.e. such as it is ordinarily conducted, while filling in a gap of knowledge on the subject; indeed, gambling soccer; while getting increasing attention in football literature in South Africa, has not been described in any thorough way hitherto.