Free State Stars
Wikipedia - Free State Stars F.C.
Free State Stars Football club is a South African professional football club based in Bethlehem, Free State that plays in the National First Division. Formerly known as Makwane Computer Stars, Fairway Stars and Qwa Qwa Stars, their most significant honour is winning the 1994 Coca-Cola Cup and 2018 Nedbank Cup.
The club sold their National First Division status to Casric F.C. at the start of the 2022–23 season. Following the sale of Bloemfontein Celtic the previous year, this left the Free State without any representatives in professional football.
History
Founded in 1977 in a small village of Makwane in an area then known as QwaQwa, the club gained promotion to the National Premier Soccer League in 1986.
The team won the league cup (then known as The Coca-Cola Cup) in 1994 with Bunene Ngaduane leading the scoring charts.
To avoid fixture congestion the club's franchise was sold to the Premier Soccer League in 2002.
The following year, Mike Mokoena revived the club as he bought and renamed the franchise of National First Division side Maholosiane. FS Stars regained their Premiership status in 2005 after winning the Mvela Golden League.
After a disappointing season in the top-flight, with the first team finishing bottom of the table, the club was relegated. The 2006–07 season however proved to be a huge success with Stars dominating the First Division and securing promotion to the Premier League once again.
They also won the inaugural Baymed Cup in December 2006 beating FC AK in the final.