The Carling Knockout returned this Wednesday as a fourth domestic competition is back on the South African football calendar.
We look at the numbers behind the tournament.

1 – Orlando Pirates have appeared in nine finals of the Carling Knockout in its various guises down the years but won just once – a 3-1 success against BidVest Wits in 2011.

1 – The first match of the Carling Knockout will be played this Wednesday when a depleted Mamelodi Sundowns travel to TS Galaxy.

3 – A curse? The last three finals of the Carling Knockout competition have involved Bloemfontein Celtic and BidVest Wits (2017), who have both gone out of business, relegated Baroka FC (2018) and Maritzburg United (2019), who are also now in the second-tier.

4 – There are four stages in the competition – first round, quarterfinals, semifinals, final. In the first round, there are seeded teams whereby the eight sides who finished in the top half of last year’s DStv Premiership are drawn against the eight from the bottom half, or promoted teams.

6 – The winners of the Carling Knockout will play a select team in an exhibition game on January 6, 2024.

10 – Isaac Shai scored 10 goals in the competition for Mamelodi Sundowns, making him their leading scorer down the years.

13 – Kaizer Chiefs are the most successful side in the competition’s history with 13 wins since it was first played in 1982. Mamelodi Sundowns have the next most wins with four. Chiefs’ last victory was back in 2010 though.

16 – All the teams in the DStv Premiership take part in the Carling Knockout, drawn against one-another in a straight shoot-out.

16 – The final of the Carling Knockout will be played on December 16 at a venue still to be decided.

17 – There have been 17 different winners of the Carling Knockout down the years, a healthy spread of victors.

41 – Kaizer Chiefs have won the most matches in the carling Knockout in the PSL era with 41. But narrowly behind them are Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, who have each won 40.

62 – If Mamelodi Sundowns make the final of every competition they are playing in this season, they will have a whopping 62 games this campaign.

2019 – The last time the tournament was played was in 2019, when it was known as the Telkom Knockout.

6,850,000 – The winners of this year’s tournament will walk away with R6.85-million rand. Not a bad pay day, though not quite the richest first prize in South African knockout football, which is the MTN8 with R8-million.