The 2025 Hollywoodbets Super League season will go down as perhaps one of the toughest for most teams.
Perhaps the signs were all there when the campaign had a stop-start affair at the beginning, which saw a limited number of matches being played due to contract negotiations between the Hollywoodbets and the South African Football Association (SAFA).
Head coach of the University of Johannesburg (UJ Ladies), Nthabeleng Dunga Modiko, is the first to admit that theirs was also a poor season in terms of results, but mainly because of a variety of reasons.
“Very tough for us, a lot of injuries and a lot of players leaving, so we had a rebuild phase within the season, bringing in new players,” said Modiko as she reflected on the season.
The former Banyana Banyana captain adds that the departure of two key players – forward Adrielle Mibe who moved to study in the USA, as well as midfielder Ayesha Moosa, who is currently playing her club football in Spain – was perhaps the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
“Happy to have lost them because they’re going international – but also that did disrupt a couple of our plans and a couple of our objectives, so I would say some of our indifferent results could be attributed to that as well,” she added.
After finishing an impressive fourth position in 2024, this season UJ Ladies dropped three places to seventh. In the previous campaign, the Orange Army managed 20 wins in 30 matches, drawing five and losing the same the number of games. They were also prolific in front of goals, with 56 strikes and conceding only 20 to finish on 65 points.
But the 2025 picture looks very different: 30 games, 12 wins, six draws, 12 losses. They also scored only 37 – 19 less, conceded 41 – 21 more, and ended with 42 points – 23 less.
“I think for a team that finished fourth last season and now coming out seventh, anyone who’s watching the results might say that that’s a big drop and it’s a disappointment, however, we are a young squad, and we are a squad that’s always looking to build on our moments and our events,” said Dunga.
While things may have looked gloomy in the league, it was away from the campaign that UJ Ladies excelled. They finished second in the final of the 2025 Varsity Football, losing to a tough University of the Western Cape (UWC). They were crowned champions in the Engen Knockout Cup Gauteng leg in July, with the departed Adrielle Mibe earning the Midfielder of the Tournament and Player of the Tournament awards. UJ Ladies then went on to win the Engen Champs of Champs (October 2025) which pitted winners from various provinces.
But they were not done.
Earlier this month, they won the 2025 University Sport South Africa (USSA) Summer Championships held in Tshwane – where they faced and defeated tough teams like Tuks, Fort Hare, UWC and TUT. It has been three years since she lifted this trophy.
Their dominance was further acknowledged when forward Thato Mofolo was named Player of the Tournament while Modiko walked away with the Coach of the Tournament accolade.
CentreCircle.online caught up with Modiko, who is taking a well-deserved break after a rigorous 2025.
Congratulations on winning the USSA tournament – how big of an achievement is that?
Winning USSA is a big achievement for myself because I last did this in 2022 with UJ and it was amazing. I then went on a two-year learning journey – 2023 and 2024 I missed out on the accolades but I’m glad that in 2025 we could bring the trophy back home.
Would you say that it makes up for the kind of season UJ had to see them finish 7th?
I think 2025 Hollywoodbets Super League season for UJ Ladies was fairly poor on our side in terms of seeing where we finished – moving from fourth position in 2024 to coming out seventh in 2025. Very tough for us, a lot of injuries and a lot of players leaving, so we had a rebuild phase within the season, bringing in new players. But on the upside, winning the 2025 Engen Champ of Champs, grabbing gold in Engen Knockout, as well as winning the USSA could in a way make up for the disappointment of the league, and I believe we’ll come back stronger in the coming year. Every year we have a rebuild phase at UJ so we will try by all means to dot our I’s and cross out T’s and ensure that we bring happiness to our supporters and our fans as well as the good quality of players that we have.
You are the first to admit that 2025 was not a very smooth year for UJ in the Hollywoodbets Super League…
Yeah, I think for a team that finished fourth last season and now sitting seventh at the end of this campaign, anyone who’s watching the results might say that that’s a big drop and it’s a disappointment, however, we are a young squad and we are squad that’s always looking to build on our moments and our events. We lost two key players in Ayesha Moosa (Spain) and Adrielle Mibe (USA) – happy to have lost them because they’re going international – but that did disrupt a couple of our plans and a couple of our objectives, so I would say some of our indifferent results could be attributed to that, as well as the major injuries that we had. We had a lot of injuries that forced the team to change almost weekly, a number of key players suffering from injuries and also if you look at the fact that we are a student team there needs to be a good management of the players since they are student athletes and we have to ensure that the academic lifestyle is also at optimum levels the same way that our footballing is, so that also meant that we needed to chop and change the squad almost weekly because of all of that.
Looking at the league overall, what are your impressions?
I think the 2025 season was marred by couple of issues – there’s been a number of times where teams were complaining about the financial constraints and that also hampered some of the ambitions of various teams. It’s been a tough one and hopefully in 2026 we will not be seeing the same hurts. You look at how teams fared in this season, it’s sad to see a Durban Ladies or even a Royal AM being relegated but that’s just the nature of the business – it’s just how the business of football is. You find yourself being at the bottom for too long and not being able to gather enough points you will be relegated because it’s cruel like that to be playing in this high league. We’ve seen some teams being able to sustain themselves and others not being able to do so and also suffering from the same consequences, so I think 2025 was one of those seasons where big lessons were learnt, hurts were there and disappointments too. There are other teams that have managed to do very well, and we congratulate everyone as much as we are crying with others as well.
What solution can we come up with to accommodate students during exam time – because that is when most, if not all, Universities struggle?
Examination periods are a little bit tough – it’s a tough toll on players because some of them are unable to manage things and they need assistance. During exam periods universities should manage student athletes through clear coordination between academics and sports with any planning to identify exam and competition conflicts. Training loads should be reduced, travel limited and protected study time built into athletes’ schedules to ensure academics take priority. Structured academic and mental health support must be readily available and faculty communication should be proactive rather than reactive – ultimately institutions should foster a culture where academic success is non-negotiable, and sporting performance is aligned with the educational outcomes. You want to have that balance and excellence in sports and in academics, perhaps that could be the solution that one could speak over. But hopefully this can also be able to assist most institutions including mine because this is a problem that is faced by all in that fraternity.
And what can we expect from UJ Ladies in the 2026?
We’ll try and refresh ourselves and get as much rest as possible, it’s important that we are able to rest adequately and be able to be ready to run this marathon and prepare correctly. We are always about energy, about new ideas, about young players, similar to what we’ve done in the previous seasons since I’ve been here, it’s still going to be in the same fashion, so we’ll see a vibrant UJ Ladies, bright, confident and I am looking forward to it.
By Matlhomola Morake
