Orlando Pirates will walk into new territory in the history of cup competition football with their latest date in the MTN8 final.
Pirates have Stellenbosch FC as opponents on Saturday (18:00) at Mbombela Stadium in the first cup final of the 2025/26 season, which will also be a repeat of last term with the two having met in the decider of the same competition.
While Stellies have grown in leaps and bounds since winning promotion to the Betway Premiership six years ago, their history is just a drop in the ocean compared to the Soweto giants.
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The Buccaneers have massive interests in the MTN8 as they were the first ever winners back in 1972 and will be playing in their 20th final of this competition.
They have totalled 13 titles with Abdeslam Ouaddou keen to add his first after Jose Riveiro delivered three in a row.
Most significant is that should the side lift the trophy on Saturday, they will become the first club to win any cup competition four years in a row, inclusive of the dark years when domestic football wasn’t recognised by FIFA.
In the MTN8, which has been through the sponsorship of oil and gas company BP and South African Airways before, Pirates is already the only club to ever lift three consecutive titles.
Then, in the league cup – which has run as the Datsun Challenge, John Player Special Knockout, Coca-Cola Cup, Rothmans Cup, Telkom Knockout, and now Carling Knockout, there has never been a club winning the trophy three years in a row.
In the national cup – whose journey has gone on as the Life Challenge Cup, Benson and Hedges trophy, Mainstay Cup, Bob Save Super Bowl, ABSA Cup, and now the Nedbank Cup – it is again Pirates as the only club to have ever done it three years on the trot.
This was in 1973, ’74 and ’75.
They now have an opportunity to rewrite history by adding their fourth consecutive MTN8 title on Saturday.
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Pirates have also been the most successful club in this competition since MTN8 took over in 2008, going up the podium as winners on six occasions.
Saturday’s final is the 25th domestic cup final (all cup competitions) featuring Pirates throughout the PSL era years.
Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
