Platinum Stars F.C.
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| Full name | Platinum Stars Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Dikwena (Crocodiles), Dinaledi (Stars) |
| Founded | 1998, purchased Khakhu Fast XI’s Second Division franchise |
| Ground |
Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Phokeng, Rustenburg |
| Capacity | 44,530 |
| Chairman | Clifford Ramoroa |
| Coach | Cavin Johnson |
| League | ABSA Premiership |
| 2014–15 | ABSA Premiership, 11th |
Platinum Stars are a South African football club based in Phokeng near Rustenburg, North West Province that plays in the Premier Soccer League. The club is fully owned by the Royal Bafokeng Nation and nicknamed Dikwena, the Tswana name for Crocodiles.
The team's best finish in the Premiership came during the Return of well known Daniel "Sailor" Tshabalala 2006–07 season, when the club finished as league runners-up, earning them their only appearance in the CAF Champions League. During the same season, the club also collected their first major trophy, when the club won the Telkom Knockout in December 2006.
The club is the historical descendent of Khakhu Fast XI, that initially were founded as an amateur club in 1937, and represented the local city Khakhu -located 170 km northeast of Polokwane. Ahead of the 1998–99 season, the club owner Joseph Mapfulagasha, relocated the team approximately 30 km south to the city Mapate, and at the same time changed the name of the club to Mapate Silver Stars. Along with the new official name, a trend also developed to nickname the team as Tycoon Silver Stars, as the new owner Joseph Mapfulagasha was commonly known by the nickname "Tycoon". In the first season of Mapate Silver Stars, the club managed straight away to win promotion from Vodacom League, to play the subsequent season in the second tier of professional football in South Africa, known as the National First Division.
Starting from the 2000–01 season and a few years ahead, the club became shortly affiliated with the reborn phoenix club Highlands Park, which were founded on the remains of the well-known and successful original Highlands Park, that played at the top flight level of South African football from November 1959 to February 1983, at Balfour Park Stadium in the northern Johannesburg suburb Highlands North. The historical fan base of Highlands Park, were located in the surrounding affluent (and highly Jewish) northern Johannesburg neighbourhoods, such as Houghton, Saxonwold, Sydenham, Glenhazel, Highlands North, Rosebank, Killarney, Linksfield and Cyrildene. In 1996 the longtime fan and businessman Larry Brookstone, purchased Highlands Park out of a previous bankruptcy, and re-established them as an amateur club. When he in 2000 also opted to purchase 50% of the shares in Mapate Silver Stars, and became the managing director of the club, he decided to start a collaboration between both of his two clubs, where the Highlands Park juniors -located at Highlands North, initially became the nursery team of Silver Stars, that played all their professional home matches 309 km northeast of Highlands North, at the big Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. In order to reflect this unique collaboration, the name of the professional club also changed ahead of the 2000–01 season, to HP Silver Stars.
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