Arcadia Shepherds are a South African

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. It is affiliated with the Football Association of Pretoria (FAP).

History

The club was founded in 1903, and was briefly renamed ''Arcadia United'' in the seasons from 1963–68, following a merger with ISCOR Pretoria. Arcadia Shepherds experienced their most successful season in 1974, where they won "the triple":

NFL Championship Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...

, Castle Cup and the NFL UTC Bowl Cup. The next three big achievements by the club, was when they won the NPSL League Cup Competition in 1982, after an exciting final against

Highlands Park Highlands Park Football Club was a South African professional soccer club who played in Modderfontein, Johannesburg. They were founded in 2003 as a phoenix club to the earlier Highlands Park F.C. (1959) and Highlands Park F.C. (1990) The c ...

; then a victory in the NPSL Sales House Cup in 1985 as Arcadia Fluoride, beating

Kaizer Chiefs Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (often known as Chiefs) are a South African professional football club based in Naturena, Johannesburg South, that plays in the Premier Soccer League. The team is nicknamed ''AmaKhosi'', which means "Lords" or "Chie ...

in the final; and next year in 1986 they won the

BP Top Eight Cup MTN 8 is the current branding for a South African soccer cup competition launched in 1972 for teams who finished in the top 8 positions of the league table of the country's preceding top-flight league (currently the DStv Premiership) season. ...

, beating

Bidvest Wits Bidvest Wits Football Club, (simply often known as Wits University F.C. or Wits) was a South African professional football club from Johannesburg which played in the Premier Soccer League the first-tier of South African league football system. ...

in the final. Since then, the achievements by the team have been modest. They managed to win a NPSL championship in 1992, but this was at a time where all the best teams were playing in the NSL. The club was formerly whites-only, but now includes players of all races. More recently Shepherds have been known for producing players like Phil Evans, Bongani Khumalo and Katlego Mphela.

References

{{reflist Association football clubs established in 1903 National Football League (South Africa) clubs SAFA Second Division clubs Soccer clubs in Pretoria 1903 establishments in Transvaal Colony Soccer and apartheid