Promotion secured: Hope FC step up to the Motsepe Foundation Championship

It is official: Hope FC are a professional football club. Following the national championship win over the North West University Soccer Institute, the club's promotion to the Motsepe Foundation Championship has been confirmed. The second tier of South African football is the final step below the Betway Premiership.

The scale of the achievement is hard to overstate. Hope FC entered the 2025/26 season as complete newcomers, having only just acquired the league status of Sea Point Swifts. Less than a year later, the club is preparing for professional football.

Promotion brings real momentum: prize money of R1.25 million from the national play-offs and a place in a league that has launched several of the country's current top-flight clubs.

For chairman and CEO Keagan Buchanan, promotion is proof of a project built with intent. The former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder surrounded himself with genuine top-flight experience, including former Mamelodi Sundowns defender Clayton Daniels on the technical staff and former Chippa United defender Roscoe Pietersen leading the youth department, with one goal in mind: to compete.

The club has wasted no time strengthening for the new season. Read about the new arrivals preparing for 2026/27.