Daniels Blasts Cape Town’s Football Decline

(Photo by Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images)

Former Cape Town Spurs defender Clayton Daniels has delivered a brutally honest reflection on what he believes is the steady decline of football in Cape Town, singling out his former club for “losing its identity” and failing to build on the strong foundation once laid by Ajax Amsterdam.

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In an impassioned assessment, Daniels expressed his frustration at how far the Mother City’s football structures have fallen behind, lamenting what he described as a 20-year regression in development and professionalism.

“Cape Town football has gone backwards. We had the Ajax Amsterdam manual, the same one that produced world-class players like Zlatan Ibrahimović, but we never continued with it. The foundation was there, the structure was there, but we didn’t move forward,” Daniels said on his TikTok account.

The former Bafana Bafana centre-back believes the city’s clubs failed to capitalize on their resources and rich talent pool, instead prioritizing player sales over long-term success.

“A club like Ajax Cape Town could have been an African champion if it had kept its best players a little longer. We were always selling players and making money, but most of us didn’t even benefit from those transfers. If we had stayed together, we could have competed with the likes of Al Ahly and done what Sundowns are doing now,” he continued on his TikTok profile.

Daniels, who came through the ranks at the then-Ajax Cape Town, insists that football in the city has lost its ambition and pride, with young players now seeing local clubs as stepping stones instead of dream destinations.

“Our kids don’t dream of playing for Cape Town clubs anymore. They just want to move on to Chiefs, Pirates, Sundowns, or overseas. That’s sad. Why can’t we build a club here that competes with the best in Africa?”

Despite his frustration, Daniels remains hopeful that Cape Town football can rediscover its identity through renewed investment and partnerships.

“I hope we can find another relationship like the one we had with Ajax Amsterdam, a partnership that stabilises football here. We have the talent and the passion, we just need direction and the will to take Cape Town football back to where it belongs,” he concluded.

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