Kaizer Chiefs (South African football club) founded 7 January 1970 in Soweto, Johannesburg. The team is nicknamed Amakhosi which means "lords" or "chiefs" in Zulu. They currently play most of their home games at Soccer City in Soweto, which is commonly also referred to as the FNB Stadium. The club is unarguably the biggest football club in the country in terms of success. It is also the most supported club in South Africa and the neighbouring countries of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia etc. It has been estimated that the club has over 16 million supporters.
They have a local rivalry with Orlando Pirates, a fellow Soweto team which Chiefs founder Kaizer Motaung played for in his early playing career.
The Chiefs were banned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from competing in African club competitions until 2009 after their abrupt withdrawal from the 2005 CAF Confederation Cup. This was the second time in four years that Chiefs had been penalized by CAF for refusal to participate in a scheduled CAF competition.
During the championship race of the 2004/2005 soccer season, the Chiefs overtook the season-long leaders (Orlando Pirates) in the last game of the season to defend its PSL championship. Under the leadership of Romanian coach Ted Dumitru, Zambian striker Collins Mbesuma had a record-breaking season scoring 39 goals in all competitions.
Kaizer Chiefs' forays into Africa were temporarily scuttled by a Confederation of African Football (CAF) ban. However, it still made its presence felt through the annual Vodacom Challenge that pit Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates with an invited European club. The Chiefs have won the Vodacom Challenge Cup 4 times since its inception. They beat a young Manchester United side in the 2006 Challenge to win the trophy.
