Highlands Park F.C.

Highlands Park Football Club are 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 club started out in the fourth tier of the South African Football league, known as SAFA Regional League, and got promoted in 2007 to compete in the third tier, known as Vodacom League. History The original Highlands Park were founded in 1959 and had been champions of the National Football League on eight occasions. The club were sold to Jomo Sono in 1983, who renamed the club to Jomo Cosmos. A phoenix club existed between 1990 and 1992. Larry Brookstone became the new owner of the Highlands Park amateur and junior club in 1996. When he subsequently in 2000 also opted to purchase a 50% ownership of the football club Silver Stars, he decided together with the other owner of Silver Stars, to create a collaboration between the two clubs. This meant that the professional Silver Stars top club was renamed "HP Silver Stars", while the Highlands Park junior team for a couple of years worked as the nursery team for the club. As HP Silver Stars played their matches at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, 309 km northeast of Highlands North, it was however soon decided also to create a Silver Stars junior team in Polokwane. The collaboration between the two clubs now slowly ceased to exist, and after a few years "HP Silver Stars" decided to shorten their name to just "Silver Stars". Larry Brookstone however continued to work as the managing director of Silver Stars until May 2007, when he sold his majority of shares to Royal Bafokeng Nation, who moved the playing ground from Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane to Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Phokeng, and also renamed the club to Platinum Stars. After the short-term affiliation with Silver Stars, the Highlands Park amateur club had also continued to develop on its own. In 2003 the club had managed to create a second semi-professional Phoenix Club with the name Highlands Park FC. During the first four seasons, the reborn "Highlands Park FC" competed in the fourth tier of the South African football league, known as SAFA Regional League. The club gained promotion in May 2007 to Vodacom League, and Larry Brookstone at the same time made the decision to dedicate all his energy and further investments to Highlands Park FC, where he worked as CEO.