Eric Tinkler, head coach of Cape Town City. File Picture: Ryan Wilkisky, BackpagePix
Durban — The head coach of Cape Town City, Eric Tinkler, has surprisingly expressed an uncharacteristic delight in his side missing out on potential participation in next season’s CAF competitions.
City participated in their maiden CAF champions league campaign this season, a huge achievement for a club in its seventh year of existence.
Tinkler is one of the most experienced heads in domestic football when it comes to the uncomfortable complexities of journeying the continent, having led Orlando Pirates to the 2015 CAF Confederation Cup final.
The 52-year-old mentor also sat alongside Roger de Sa on the bench of the Buccaneers as they lost the champions league title to Al Ahly in 2015.
Tinkler and his men were knocked out in the preliminary rounds of this year’s campaign by competition regulars Petro De Luanda.
However, the former Bafana Bafana midfielder expressed his displeasure at the nature of his side’s exit, deeming the shenanigans encountered away as the main reason he would rather have his team not partake in continental competition.
When quizzed about whether he’d like to get City back to either one of the competitions, Tinkler replied: “Not after our last game this season, what happened there, I think it was diabolical and if that’s what that football is about then I would rather not get involved and that's my honest opinion,” he adamantly said.
“I’d rather not be involved in situations like that because there’s a lot of money we have to spend to go into these competitions, and clubs have to take it out of their pockets because they’re not sponsored by CAF in the preliminary rounds.”
Tinkler earned 48 national caps for Bafana Bafana between 1994 and 2002, and helped South Africa lift the 1996 African Cup of Nations under Clive Barker.
He expressed his shock at the long-standing high levels of animosity and off-field influence African nations still utilise in these competitions.
“I thought we had moved past that when I played back then against the DRC and what we had to do in 1998, I thought we were beyond that, but by the looks of things we're not, but it still exists, which is sad,” he lamented.
The Cape Town-based club, alongside last season’s fellow CAF newbies AmaZulu, have tasted the gruelling implications of continental competition, and although with unsettling stories, they would do well to use these as lessons towards bigger achievements in the future.
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