Kaizer Chiefs appointed Kaizer Motaung Jr as the club’s sporting director, while Mamelodi Sundowns appointed a former Chelsea chief scout. Nepotism may be hurting Kaizer Chiefs, writes Herman Gibbs.
Cape Town – The time has come for the 77-year-old Kaizer Motaung to arrest Kaizer Chiefs’ spectacular fall from grace.
The 52-year-old club has plumbed the depths of despair and for the first time in its storied history have racked up four consecutive league defeats. By Sunday it could be five after facing Premiership champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
When Motaung does decide to sit down and give the matter some thought, he should not surround himself with any current members of the club’s critical leadership positions. The present hierarchy may be at the heart of the crisis and as it turns out they are members of the Motaung family.
Six years have now passed, and Chiefs have failed to win a trophy.
In July last year, Motaung appointed his son Kaizer Motaung Jr as the club’s sporting director. In modern-day football, it is a vital position, the supreme leader of the club.
Local fans were recently given an insight into the functions of the sporting director when Sundowns appointed Flemming Berg, the former Chelsea chief scout and former Danish FA official.
Before Berg’s appointment, Sundowns’ director was Jose Ramon Alexanko, a former Barcelona academy director. He famously gave Pep Guardiola his first managerial push.
If this position of the sporting director is so significant, why would Motaung appoint a greenhorn like his son?
Maybe the time has come for Motaung to step aside and call in outside help. He cannot be appointing officials simply because they are members of his family.
Perhaps he should take a leaf out of Safa’s book, who called on former players, coaches and managers to select the new Bafana Bafana coach. They chose Hugo Broos; and it has turned out to be a great choice.
There are also question marks hanging over Amakhosi’s football manager Bobby Motaung, another son of Kaizer. Traditionally the manager is directly involved in almost every aspect of the club, is at the forefront of transfers, contracts and ensuring that all the team’s requirements are catered for.
Recently, interim co-coach Arthur Zwane said there are some players at Chiefs that are not good enough.
Two years ago, then coach Gavin Hunt said something similar. On several occasions, Hunt admitted he did not have answers to questions that head coaches would normally be equipped to speak on.
What was apparent then, was that somebody other than the head coach was making decisions which should be the prerogative of the coach. Clearly, this has proved disastrous.
A great example of how it pays to have a good manager at the helm is Afzal Khan, who guided at least two clubs with limited resources to great success. Khan as manager with coach Gordon Igesund in tow as coach, guided Manning Rangers to the Premiership title in the 1996/97 season.
A few seasons later Khan moved on to Santos, who like Manning Rangers, also operated on a shoe-string budget. However, Khan roped in Igesund again and together they won the 2001/02 title, the Bob Save Super Bowl (2001) and the BP Top 8 (2002).
Thousands of Chiefs fans have become highly disillusioned with the current situation. It showed at FNB Stadium on Saturday. The stands were largely deserted at a time when fans are ecstatic to be back at stadiums and Motaung must correct that now.
