Kaizer Chiefs coach slams fixture congestion despite moving top of CAF group

So much for the notion that in sports, the winner celebrates and the loser looks for excuses. Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Ben Youssef Khalil was crying foul despite Amakhosi’s 2-1 CAF Confederation Cup victory over Al Masry at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Flavio Silva and Aiden McCarthy scored the goals that saw Amakhosi climb to the top of their group with 10 points. They now need only a draw at Zamalek next weekend to progress to the knockout stage. Delighted though he was by their success, Khalil lamented what he insinuated was unfair treatment of Amakhosi.

“As a Kaizer Chiefs team, we have a situation where we are playing in this competition but we have played all our PSL (Betway Premiership) games," he said, during the post-match press conference deep in the bowels of the 2010 World Cup arena.

"I remember last season a lot of teams were playing in the Champions League or CAF. They changed their fixtures, they changed their games and they continued their last five or six games in May.”

Khalil continued, singing from the same hymn book as the one used by Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso last season: “We played five or four games away.

"We are flying back and we don’t have any training sessions. In the last three weeks, we have not had training sessions.”

He then called on the league to consider giving clubs involved in continental competitions a break of sorts ahead of their international engagements.

“If we want to improve and to help, you must help your team also because yes, we are representing Kaizer Chiefs, but we are representing South Africa also.

"This season we have played 15 games, while another team – I don’t want to mention the name – played 13 games and they don’t play anything. If we represent Kaizer Chiefs (only) I understand, but if we represent South Africa.”

He claimed that in some leagues things are done differently. “In all the countries, and I’ve worked in a lot, when you have a CAF match they allow you to change [postpone the domestic fixture].”

Intriguingly, his counterpart at Al Masry, Nabil El Kouki, said after the game that they would like to have the Egyptian League give them a break too ahead of continental assignments — his plea flying straight against Khalil’s claim that clubs in other countries get a domestic break.

His complaints aside, Khalil is confident Chiefs can get the requisite point away to Zamalek next weekend to reach the knockout stage. The ‘fixture overload’, however, could be their undoing as players get injured, with defender Inacio Miguel currently sidelined.

“It is not an excuse, but it is reality.”

The other reality is that, worldwide, successful clubs play as many matches as Chiefs are currently facing. Participation in continental competition always means an overload, and clubs that reach that level must find ways of augmenting their squads instead of complaining about the lack of league breaks.