Mamelodi Sundowns are already aeons ahead of their fellow DStv Premiership sides. The R74-million bounty bagged from winning the inaugural African Football League on Sunday is going to further widen the gap between the Tshwane side and the rest.

If South African soccer was a science fiction film, Mamelodi Sundowns would be the all-knowing time traveller who has come from the future. That's how far ahead the Tshwane giants are of their DStv Premiership competitors.

Masandawana's monopoly when it comes to the domestic league is evidence enough that they are years ahead of the competition. Last season they clinched a sixth Premiership crown on the spin.

Last season's league triumph was also their 13th overall in the Premier Soccer League era (from 1996). The joint next-best sides are Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, with four Premierships apiece in the same period.

Just to emphasise the gulf between themselves and the would-be challengers to their dominant run in local soccer, the Brazilians finished a staggering 16 points ahead of second-placed Pirates last season.

In the process, they equalled their own league record for the largest points gap between first and second at the culmination of an SA top-flight campaign. They won the league by the same margin between themselves and runners-up Cape Town City in the 2021/2022 season.

In their own league

Sundowns are cut above the rest. Backed the billions of the Motsepe family.

Now bolstered by the R74-million...