Gallants’ relegation sees Free State government court other clubs to help revive Celtic

After Marumo Gallants' relegation from the DStv Premiership, the Free State government has moved to plan B to try to revive Bloemfontein Celtic and bring top tier football back the province.

Gallants and the Free State government had agreed in principle that the club would relocate to Bloemfontein permanently, but it depended on the nomadic team retaining the top tier status.

Free State government officials are desperate to close the hole left in the province's sports infrastructure when Celtic's franchise was sold to Durban businesswoman Shauwn Mkhize in 2021 to form Royal AM.

Gallants had started to host some games in the City of Roses and scenes in the stands were electrifying when they played Sundowns in the Nedbank Cup at Free State Stadium.

But "Bahlane Ba Ntwa" finished at the bottom of the table in the 2022-23 Premiership and will play in the Motsepe Foundation Championship next season.

Free State MEC for sport, arts, culture and recreation Limakatso Mahasa confirmed their agreement with Gallants has fallen through as they do not want to broker a deal bringing a second second-tier club to Bloemfontein.

Mahasa told TimesLIVE they are talking to an undisclosed Premiership team and the negotiations are in the early stages, but promising.   

“It’s going to be difficult for me to say anything at the moment, but we are trying to get another team [to come and play] in the province,” Mahasa said.

“We are negotiating with another team and it’s possible they might come and play here next season. The negotiations are still at early stages because Marumo Gallants were relegated not long ago.

“Most teams have said they are willing to come and be based in Free State but they can’t say anything [with commitment] until we stop everything with Marumo Gallants.

“We have started that after Gallants' relegation.” 

In March, Mahasa told this publication t there was a challenge in getting Bloemfontein Celtic naming rights as the previous owner of the club, Max Tshabalala, who sold the franchise to Mkhize, was apparently reluctant to sell the naming rights for Siwelele cheaply.

“We tried to negotiate with Mr Tshabalala, but we are not winning so maybe they will try to register a different name, like Marumo Celtic,” Mahasa said then.

Speculation was Tshabalala was more aligned with another group trying to revive Celtic, involving second tier team Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) and Mkhize which was also trying to revive Celtic.

TimesLIVE was reliably informed Mkhize had been behind another plan to revive Celtic, which would involve the team she sold Royal's first division status to — TTM — reforming as Celtic.

However, the Lawrence Mulaudzi-owned TTM were also relegated from the NFD. 

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