An air of resignation: The son goes down as Kaizer Chiefs stars finally join the Bafana squad

Family business: Kaizer and Bobby

In the real world when a junior official publicly contradicts his well-loved Chief Executive Officer, the axe falls with alarming speed.

At Kaizer Chiefs, when Football Manager Bobby Motaung attempts to tear up the agreement set by his father Kaizer – the club’s owner – a stony silence falls.

We know Bobby well. In theory. I’ve spoken to his brother Junior and his sisters Jessica and Kemiso. But somehow I’ve never got through to the oldest surviving brother in the Motaung clan.

We know that he refused to resign a couple of years ago, saying he didn’t need to a CV to get the job under his father: “This is a family business,” he told us "I will be here as long as this company exists."

Then there were the TWO arrests over the Mbombela Stadium scandal. I spoke to Paul Ramaloko, the Hawks captain, after the bizarre episode at Nelspruit Magistrates Court when he arrested Bobby for the second time as he left court following a preliminary hearing.

At the time, and I remember it well, I asked Paul if there was anything he could add to the story, recognising how difficult prosecuting the son of the nation’s most popular footballer would be. Captain Ramaloko’s reply remains etched in my mind: “Neal, do you really think I would do this without a watertight case against him?”

But of course, when the charges of fraud, corruption and forgery came to court, magistrate Roelf Smith removed the case from the roll as "he could see no progress being made". The case - and two deaths linked to the Mbombela Stadium debacle - remain undealt with, hanging like a sword of Damocles over South Africa’s national game.

This is what I wrote at the time: http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2013/06/charges-dropped-sorry-bobby-motaung.html.

Throughout all that, Bobby remained in place. Acting not just as Football Manager or Kaizer Chiefs but as a makeshift spokesman for the club, an enforcer, the man who made all the transfers. There was the bizarre severing of ties with the popular former captain Jimmy Tau too.

After long-term injury, Jimmy had been told by double-winning coach Stuart Baxter that he would get a new contract at the club as he fought his way back to fitness and played a couple of reserve games at the end of last season.

But almost as soon as Baxter’s flight had departed for an off-season break in Britain, Bobby summoned Jimmy and told him his services were no longer required. That story is documented HERE http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2013/06/discarded-by-kaizer-chiefs-jimmy-tau.html.

But all this pales into insignificance in the light of the events of the past fortnight. After his father Kaizer, along with Sundowns supremo Patrice Motsepe, had agreed to release his players to Bafana Bafana for the CHAN tournament in January, Bobby immediately came out and said Chiefs would do no such thing.

Earlier this week he released a further statement through the club’s website insisting no AmaKhosi stars would be release until AFTER the top-of-the-table clash against Mamelodi Sundowns on January 23. With the tournament starting in Cape Town on January 11, that would have left South Africa's squad five short throughout the group stages.

With dangerous neighbours Mozambique, Mali and reigning African champions Nigeria to play in Group A, that would have been simply unacceptable.

And with Gordon Igesund’s squad of 23 already officially submitted, SAFA president Danny Jordaan had no choice but to insist the five Chiefs players should be there from the start. On the telephone to me on Thursday night, he said he had written to FIFA, he insisted it was possible to get the five Chiefs players banned for the Sundowns game.

And of course, with Sundowns doing the honourable thing and releasing their players for CHAN, Chiefs – and the grand old man Kaizer – were forced in to a corner. Chincha Guluva, as always, did the honourable thing and promised to release his players as he had agreed in a tele-conference with SAFA three weeks ago.

Jordaan’s Saturday statement – including the line “Our gratitude goes out to Mr Kaizer Motaung and Kaizer Chiefs for their long-standing and unstinting support of the national team” – is clearly placatory, in the interests of the nation.

The social networks will debate the rights and wrongs of the situation until the cows come home, but the fact is Bobby publicly contradicted – even embarrassed – his father with his outspoken rebuttal of the CHAN policy agreed with SAFA, the game’s ruling body.

It’s fair to say Bidvest Wits only released their players late too. And that Orlando Pirates have somehow escaped the entire debacle while their chairman, also in charge of the PSL, was never asked to explain how Chiefs v Sundowns found its way on to the fixture list in mid-CHAN.

But those are side issues. In the real world, Bobby would be forced to resign. In our little world, the son of the boss will no doubt carry on without a CV or an apology. And that simply can’t be right.

BOLLOCKZ! my own football show on www.ballz.co.za, restarts after the Christmas break on Thursday from 9am. See the Ballz channel on www.YouTube.com for our growing collection of interviews with the big names in South African football.

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Revealed: Baxter to the Future for double-winning Kaizer Chiefs. Naturena Junior on the drawing board

No going Baxter: Chiefs double-winning coach Stuart

AFTER his "once upon a time" start, the Stuart Baxter fairy-tale is only just getting underway.

After a season which sees Sir Alex Ferguson bow out at 71 with the English Premier League title under his belt and Jupp Heynckes leave Bayern Munich at 68 with the Bundesliga and Champions League wrapped up, an end-of-era atmosphere pervades large swathes of football-speaking Europe.

But in South Africa, the 58-year-old Baxter from Wolverhampton will not be thrown to the wolves.

Last night, as he picked up Coach of the Season at the PSL awards, Baxter said: "There was pressure at Kaizer Chiefs, a big club without a trophy for so long. But it's been great.

"Thank you to the fans who stuck with the team, the chairman, who has been an inspiration. And to those people who don't get the credit, the people who cut the grass, wash the kit, make the food, we must thank them too."

With our initial misgivings about the former Bafana Bafana boss now firmly thrust aside by Kaizer Chiefs double success in an historic first season, minds were turning to the future of the AmaKhosi within hours of the gritty 1-0 extra-time Nedbank Cup success over SuperSport United.

The roars of the 51,200 at Moses Mabhida had barely died down when "Reclaiming the Glory" turned to "The Glory Continues" - with the Motaung family seeking to secure "Baxter to the future" success for South Africa’s biggest club, with a reputed 15million pilgrims turning the nation’s streets to miles of of black and gold smiles.

Baxter says: “I didn’t want to talk to much about the future until after the Cup final. But the plans are in place.

“Firstly, we have produced a CD which will go out to junior clubs around the country. This will explain how Kaizer Chiefs youngsters are formed, what the club expects, how a promising kid might play for the Amakhosi. We want to develop a Chiefs style of play, universally.

“Then we have the new academy all planned out. We will be breaking ground over the road from Naturena soon. Two pitches, an academy building. All the plans are in place, I'll send you an invite!”

In England, the Cliff is Liverpool’s hallowed production line, for Manchester United it’s Carrington. Arsenal have London Colney, Chelsea recently built an expensive facility at Cobham.

Now for Naturena Too. Baxter promises: “We have nutritionists to ensure our players – current and future – stick to the correct diet. It’s so important in modern football.

“Everybody needs a sports psychologist these days too. This is a top-ranked, professional football club. We will offer counselling and advice to our players, young and old. That is vital too.

“We have also put an academic programme in place with a local university. We want our players to learn, not just play football. That’s is the way ahead.

“I know there have been problems with academies in South Africa before (both Chiefs and Pirates junior set-ups have been disbanded due to age-cheating allegations) but we have to plan for the future.

“I said when I got here, development would be crucial. That I would involved myself in all aspects of Kaizer Chiefs. We’ve won the league and the cup in my first season. But I have been working on these plans for years.”

Just in case that sounds like hot air, how about this from Aaron “Mbazo” Mokoena, the man Baxter appointed as his Bafana Bafana captain during his all-too-brief tenure a decade ago? 

Mokoena told me: “Stuart has had plans to develop South African footballers for years. SAFA didn’t give him the chance ten years ago. Now he will get the opportunity to put his development programme in place at Chiefs.

“I’ve always been a Baxter fan. You just watch him now he's achieve success.”

We will. Baxter has won us over on the pitch this season, surviving a difficult run-in to claim the PSL and seeing of Gavin Hunt’s tenacious SuperSport in Durban on Saturday.

After the game, Baxter grinned: "You come to a club and win the double in your first year? It's incredible and I'm immensely proud of my players.

"If someone had told me at the start of the season we would win the double I'd ask them what how much they were drinking?

"But remember, we start from scratch next season. We won't be champions of anything if we get beaten 3-0 every week!

"We'll try to repeat this year obviously, that’s what we have to do.”

Impressive stuff. Now Baxter gets the chance to impress OFF the field. I’ll keep you posted on just how successful he is. Happy ever after would be some epitaph.

Kaizer Motaung: he's nearly 70 but is there a finer man in South African football?

Chief of Chiefs: Kaizer Motaung

How not to be popular with plundering Pirates. Tell the world you wish Kaizer Motaung was still the driving force in South African football.

Watching the great man speak after the AmaKhosi’s championship celebrations in Mbombela on Saturday, you could almost forget the mess which left Polokwane City at the top of the National First Division on Sunday night. You could almost ignore his team’s unimpressive finishing to the season, five draws and two defeats in seven games.

AmaTuks' upset 1-0 win over the already-crowned Chiefs left Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns languishing outside the PSL’s lucrative top eight. But in front of a capacity crowd surrounded by the giraffes of Mbombela’s elegant World Cup edifice, Kaizer moved us beyond the humdrum.

The words rumbled forth, easy, unprepared from a 68-year-old in full control of his faculties: “I told this team this is a great club with a great history. Now you have to go out there and write your own history. That is exactly what they have done this season.”

And for the first foreigner to win the PSL title in his first year, Stuart Baxter, he used the simple, the straightforward: “I must give credit to Stuart. He’s been incredible in his maiden season. These Chiefs will not be remembered as chokers like some others before them.”

Whether Serbian ex-boss Vladimir Vemezovic was watching, we may never know. Baxter’s arrival and early 4-1 defeat against Mamelodi Sundowns was generally lampooned but Kaizer said: “We made those changes late in the season. We took a lot of criticism. Football is a game of opinions. But we knew where we wanted to go and what we required.”

Perhaps now would be a good time to express an interest. As a kid in what was then known as Verwoerdburg (now Centurion) I was one of the few, using foreign football magazines like Shoot and Goal, to find out about Motaung’s return to South Africa in 1970.

There was not television, no internet, only censored print media to keep in touch with the real world, where all men were equal. There weren’t many black male icons in South Africa in those days who weren’t behind bars, banned or banished.

Kaizer was one. The one. Famous in the US for his exploits amid the global superstars at Atlanta Chiefs he returned to set up his own team and take on the side he grew up with in Soweto, the famous Orlando Pirates.

I met him for the first time in the early 80s as a football writer on Durban’s Natal Mercury. I was totally intimidated. By then Chiefs were the biggest club in the old NPSL and the fledgling NSL. The man had presence, authority; in the old South Africa he was a revelation.

And he remains just that. While others squabble over the fruits, he just gets on with it, surrounded by his own family and an estimated 15million AmaKhosi nationwide.

And to add the icing to the cake which has cheered so many, Chincha Guluva confirmed his iconic Zebras WILL compete in the African Champions League next season – hopefully alongside his old Pirates if they come through a tough qualifying group over the next three months.

Kaizer said: “We ARE committed to CAF. Playing in Africa means we are representing our country and it is something we cannot shy away from.

“It is expensive – and there was no sponsorship of the competition when we first got involved. That’s why South African teams pulled out.

“Now it is sponsored, even though it is not adequate and that's why as the PSL, we give the clubs that participate there R1 million.”

But Kaizer knows full well the pitfalls of travelling north: “CAF need to improve in a lot of areas. You saw what happened to Pirates in the Congo.”

This will appear as my regular "Neal and Pray" column in The New Age on Tuesday morning.

Stuart Baxter: the honest truth about Kaizer Chiefs and their coach

Your number's up: Kaizer Chiefs trio Baxter, Nkosi and Jessica Motaung

IT'S one thing to be 4-0 down after 37 minutes of your opening competitive game of the season. It's quite another to be a Kaizer Chiefs fan and hear that your coach, Stuart Baxter, has been economical with the truth.

When I spoke to Joe Mann on Metro FM's popular Sports Centre (now known as 083 Sports@6) last night, I was asked for my views on the opening weekend of MTN8 action and I dropped the bombshell: "Stuart Baxter lied about his CV, and I never thought he was a good choice to coach a big club like Kaizer Chiefs."

Of course, I didn't just talk about Chiefs. I pointed out how well Mamelodi Sundowns had played in their emphatic 4-1 thumping of the AmaKhosi at a packed Loftus Versfeld. How the oft-lamented Teko Modise had pulled all the strings - and how good debutant striker Edward Manqele looked.

Oh, I also questioned the penalties given and not given in Orlando Pirates squeaky 1-0 win over Bloemfontein Celtic, the efficiency of SuperSport United in their 2-1 win over Free State Stars and praised Moroka Swallows for producing the one result I predicted wrong - an emphatic 2-0 win over AmaZulu despite the recent departure of Gordon Igesund to Bafana Bafana.

But it was my critique of Chiefs which attracted the most responses, some of it abusive, on the social networking sites. It was a bit of a shock. I made my first appearance with Robert Marawa on Metro during the 2010 World Cup and have been chatting away with the great man regularly since, on television and radio.

So, am I, as some would have it an "air head" who, as another suggests "knows nothing about football"? Do I hate Kaizer Chiefs? Do I have a hidden agenda? Of course not. I am, as I told Joe on Monday night, a lifelong football player who played over 3,000 games, a coach, a referee, a lover of the game, particularly in South Africa where so many of my ilk deride "local football" as rubbish.

I never reached great heights as a player, though you will see pictures of me winning the FA Over 35s Christian World Cup on my Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/nealivorcollins/photos in 2010, aged 49.

As a youngster I was coached by England manager Roy Hodgson who told me I would never make it as a player, I was picked for Northern Transvaal schoolboys and South African Universities and trained with Umlazi Bush Bucks as young journalist in Durban. I was never good enough to make Clive Barker's first team, not with the title-winning side he and Lawrence "Big Bear" Ngubane had put together.

Then, as a conscientious objector and political exile, I spent 1985-2010 in England, playing two or three games a week in the local leagues as I learned my trade on the Mirror, Daily Mail and Sky TV.

I returned to South Africa for the England cricket tour and World Cup in 2010, fell in love with the place and a local lawyer - all over again and stayed to look after my doddery dad in Centurion.

I have no bias against Kaizer Chiefs or Orlando Pirates. Just huge admiration for the two giants of South African football. But if I see something wrong, something dodgy, I'll raise the issue. Unlike so many in the media here, I have no in-built fear of Irvin Khoza or Kaizer Motaung - or his son Bobby. 

In the UK, I have been told to "f*** off" late at night by Sir Alex Ferguson and was once confronted by a mob of angry Birmingham fans in North London. I have seen Millwall late at night, been to European games where riots have broken out. After those incidents, and many like it, you tend to do your job regardless of the insults. As long as you stick to what you believe to be the truth.

I tell it like I see it. And that's what I continue to do, though it has lost me many friends over the past two years in South African sports journalism.

When Baxter arrived, I wrote stories like these, some of which were re-published in local newspapers and websites.

http://www.neal-collins.blogspot.com/2012/05/komphela-matthaus-gullit-no-new-kaizer.html

http://www.sportscentral.co.za/is-stuart-baxter-the-man-the-amakhosi-need/17975/

But if it's the truth about Stuart Baxter you want, it's to be found here:

http://www.iol.co.za/sport/soccer/psl/baxter-loose-with-the-truth-1.1294320#.UCENP_Ygdcg

Written by the Johannesburg Star's Jonty Mark on May 11, I've given you the full story below. Robert Marawa had Bobby Mataung in the next day to discuss Baxter's lies. He couldn't - or wouldn't - explain the anomalies. Baxter has never explained the holes in his CV. And this is the man put in charge of South Africa's biggest club. So now it's your choice. Read what is written below. You decide if I was right or not. 

Embellishing your CV is hardly a new trait, but Stuart Baxter really ought to be a little more careful.

The new Kaizer Chiefs coach, in an interview with The Star on Thursday, did his best to make his time in between coaching Bafana Bafana and the Amakhosi look, shall we say, as effervescent as possible.

Baxter resigned from the Bafana job in November 2005, after failing to qualify the team for the 2006 Fifa World Cup. His return to South Africa and the Amakhosi came as a surprise to many, when it was confirmed last week.

Whatever Baxter said in meeting with Chiefs president Kaizer Motaung persuaded the Amakhosi chairman that the 58-year-old Englishman was the right man for the job.

Yet one hopes Baxter was not as generous with the facts as he was on Thursday. The Chiefs coach’s first strange claim was that upon leaving Bafana he “went to Japan for one year and won the title”.

Closer inspection reveals that in 2006, Baxter’s Vissel Kobe finished third in the Japanese second division, winning promotion to the top-flight through a play-off.

That’s a “title”?

Baxter then went off to Helsingborgs in Sweden, a country where he lifted the Allsvenskan title in 1998 with AIK Stockholm.

“When I went to Helsingborgs they were third bottom and we finished third.

“We also got to the last 16 of the Europa League,” said Baxter on Thursday.

Another swift check of the facts, however, and Helsingborgs actually finished fourth in the 2008 Allsvenskan, and reached only the last 32 of the 2007/8 Europa League (the Kaizer Chiefs statement on Baxter’s appointment this week also states that he reached the last 16).

These exaggerations extend to Baxter’s time with the Finnish national team, who he joined in 2008.

The Chiefs coach correctly noted that Finland had drawn twice with Germany in a decent World Cup 2010 qualifying campaign.

But the truth was once again loose as he went into their failed Euro 2012 qualification.

According to Baxter, Finland “got beaten 2-1 by Holland, lost to Moldova when we had Sami Hyppia sent off five minutes, in, and came back and drew with Hungary.

“It was very difficult to qualify. I said to the Finnish FA that I wanted to get back into club football, and spend more time with my daughter.” (Baxter’s daughter fell very ill when he was in Japan, one of the main reasons he went back to Scandinavia).

Well, Finland did lose 2-1 to Holland and did have Hyppia sent off in a 2-0 loss to Moldova (in the 36th minute, not the fifth), but they also lost 2-1 to Hungary.

It is difficult to believe how anyone could make this succession of mistakes accidentally, and has to cast Baxter in a slightly dappled light even before he has started his work with Chiefs.

No wonder, if he believes his own story, that the Chiefs coach says: “I don’t think I have to prove anything to anybody. I must just make sure the players enjoy training and the supporters enjoy what they are watching.” – The Star

Komphela? Matthaus? Gullit? No, the new Kaizer Chiefs boss is... Stuart Baxter.

SO much for a little bit of excitement at Kaizer Chiefs. Lothar Matthaus’s CV has been submitted, Ruud Gullit’s shadow has been lurking over Naturena. But today, back to earth with a bump; we are told former South Africa boss Stuart Baxter is set to be named as the new coach.
The 58-year-old Scotsman is not confirmed, but both of the major South African football websites, www.kickoff.com and www.soccerladuma.com seem convinced – and the Wolverhampton-born journeyman has been spotted with Amakhosi founder Kaizer Motaung and his son-cum-mismanager Bobby in recent weeks.
Darn. Steve Komphela, a former Chief and local, has had a great season with Free State Stars and looked a great choice to take over from the current caretakers Doc Khumalo and Donald “Ace” Khuse. Clearly Komphela’s new role as assistant to Pitso Mosimane took precedence. Or did Kaizer just not fancy a local coach?
A new chief for the Chiefs appeared a must after the string of defeats which followed the departure of hard-line Serbian Vladimir Vermezovic a month ago. The upset win over leaders Mamelodi Sundowns last week was never going to be enough, though Chiefs could conceivably still finish in the top three.
So what do we know of Baxter? Is he better than Komphela… or Germany’s 1990 World Cup winning captain Matthaus? Or even the smooth-talking Gullit, generally unimpressive as a coach but a clear rival in the fame stakes when it comes to Sundowns’ own Dutch boss Johan Neeskens?
As far as I can tell, Baxter was last employed as “an advisor to the coach” at Swedish club AIK after ending his Finnish international connection last year.
Born in Wolverhampton but claiming kilt-wearing Scottishness through his dad, Baxter played for Preston North End in 1973. He later moved north to Dundee United before returning to England with Stockport County. Baxter then moved to Australia, Sweden and the United States with South Melbourne FC, Helsingborgs IF and San Diego Sockers to extend a playing career which ended in 1983 at the tender age of 30.
Much like new England boss Roy Hodgson (more about me and him here http://www.neal-collins.blogspot.com/2012/05/did-i-ever-mention-i-was-coached-by.html) Baxter went to Viking country for his first adult coaching experience. And the Hodgson connections don’t end there.
After working with Örebro SK's youth team he became manager at Idrettsforeningen Skarp (don’t ask me to spell that) in Norway in 1986 but moved up in the footballing world pretty quickly when he went to Portugal’s Vitória de Setúbal a year later.
By 1988, he was back in Sweden, where Halmstads BK were still recovering from Hodgson’s departure. In his first year with Halmstad he guided them to promotion but two seasons later they were relegated and Baxter decamped to Japan’s Sanfrecce Hiroshima before joining Vissel Kobe days after the earthquake of 1997. He worked out of a caravan as the club’ headquarters had been destroyed.
A year later, he was back in Scandinavia, this time with some success, winning the title with AIK before taking on Barcelona, Arsenal and Fiorentina in Champions League qualification. Sadly, they finished bottom of this particular group of death.
By the turn of the Millennium, he was with Norwegian side Lyn Oslo. But interesting times loomed.
Baxter took his first coaching job in England in 2002, when the Football Association asked him to coach England’s Under 19s; he was doing okay back in Britain... then South Africa made him Bafana Bafana boss.
He looked a fair appointment; experienced, FA backed, urbane. But qualifying proved fruitless, South Africa failed to make the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, and Baxter left in the autumn of 2005 after just over two years in the Rainbow Nation.
True to form, Baxter found himself back in Scandinavia, after another short spell with Vissel Kobe in Japan. This time it was another former Hodgson club, Helsingborg. He got them to the knock-out stages of the 2007 UEFA Cup/Europa League, and then resigned to take over as Finland’s national manager, another job title he shares with Hodgson.
Throughout the post South Africa years, Baxter kept in contact with players and agents in the PSL, and – using his Celtic connections – he secured a trial for Mamelodi Sundowns striker Katlego “Killer” Mphela amongst others at Parkhead.
He was rumoured to be headed for Glasgow as Celtic’s technical director during the 2010 World Cup but chose to extend his contract with Finland, promising to lead them to Euro 2012 later this year.
Defeats against Moldova and Hungary dented those hopes. Finland slumped in the FIFA rankings from 33 to 86 - and in November 2010 they parted “by mutual consent” after an acrimonious fall out with the local media. He told them: “You don’t have the footballing knowledge to have a go at me.”
Though linked repeatedly with major Swedish club Malmo FF – the only Swedish side ever to reach a European final - Baxter and his goakeeping son Lee were last employed as “advisors” back at AIK in Sweden before establishing contact with Kaizer and Bobby Motaung.
Though there are highpoints on that lengthy multinational CV, Baxter’s appointment – like Hodgson’s – will not stir the imagination. A lot depends now on what happens to Doc and Ace… and who is brought in at Naturena to help Baxter in his bid to rebuild after the VV era. Personally, I’d have gone for Komphela. A former Chiefs and Bafana captain, as articulate as they come and tactically astute, he is the local choice most South Africans seemed to favour.
But as usual, Kaizer – and Bobby – have steered the family business in a cheaper, safer direction. I hope the nation’s estimated 15 million Amakhosi will be happy with Baxter. Like Hodgson, I wish him luck in his new venture. He too will need plenty of it.
You can read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za. Watch eNews (DSTV 403) every Monday morning at 8.15am for my weekend round-ups. And you can follow me at www.twitter.com/nealcol.

Given the choice between Palacios, Vermezovic and Komphela, who would you choose?

The biggest question in South African football is the simplest one of all: presented with Vladimir Vermezovic, Augusto Palacios and Steve Komphela, who would YOU choose to coach your football club?

Not difficult is it? Kaizer Chiefs boss VV isn’t that bad. He produces answers we can understand without sub-titles, though the Serbian has yet to explain satisfactorily the curious absence of midfielder Tinashe Nengomasha in recent weeks, following an alleged training-ground bust-up.

Lehlohonolo Majoro's four-goal Nedbank Cup blitz against the Leopards at the weekend certainly did VV no harm. The lad with "balz" now has eight goals in seven games and may just turn things around for the patient Amakhosi millions.

Palacios, the Peruvian caretaker at Orlando Pirates, remains difficult to read or listen to. His tactical decisions in the Buccaneers’ 2-1 extra-time Nedbank Cup defeat against Komphela’s Free State Stars were hard to fathom, just like those of his suspended Brazilian predecessor Julio Leal. He gained measure of revenge in the League game against Komphela’s men, but I’m still not convinced.

And then we have Komphela and his little Stars of Bethlehem. Not only has the former Amakhosi midfielder produced a multi-national company to be proud of in South Africa’s remote “House of Bread”, he also gives a cracking interview – and was able to raise his shell-shocked troops to victory in extra-time after the late, late equaliser from Daine Klaite last week.

The Nedbank Cup quarter-final against Kaizer Chiefs now looms for “Ea Lla Kotto” (Basotho for ”fight to the end”) and even a possible title tilt, though the three Soweto giants – never forget Moroka Swallows - and Johan Neeskens’ currently impregnable Sundowns stand firmly in their way.

The point is this: With Palacios is temporary charge at Pirates and VV under huge pressure at Chiefs, surely Komphela should be the coach of choice for Irvin Khoza and Kaizer Motaung, South Africa’s footballing king-makers?

It’s not like this is a new story. Google “Neal Collins Free State Stars” and you’ll find http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2011/12/o-little-town-of-bethlehem-all-you-ever.html, my pre-Christmas epic which wrapped up and presented Komphela’s men, including Zambia’s Afcon winning goalkeeper Kennedy Mweena and top-scorer Edward Manqela two weeks before Santa popped down the chimney.

Curiously, Kaizer and his son Bobby have emphatically denied any link between their family business and Komphela, who served under Bafana Bafana boss Palacios a full 20 years ago.

All the talk is of Bloemfontein Celtic coach Clinton Larsen or Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning captain Lothar Mathaus heading for the big time, with former Pirates’ treble-winning boss Ruud Krol waiting in the wings with his notebook and pen resplendent at so many SAPL matches this season.

Madness. In a nation crying out for local coaches of quality at all levels, Komphela, who played 24 times for South Africa in a playing career which covered Chiefs, Stars and two stints in Turkey, stands out like a sore but prominent thumb.

His post-match interview on Saturday was a thing of beauty, as it so often is with the philosophical Komphela.

He generously paid tribute to the Buccaneers who walked the plank in a cup competition for the first time since 2010, saying: “There was a moment when I felt that it was not meant to be our night (that was probably in the inexplicable 5^th minute of injury time when Klaite’s free-kick found a route past the miserly Mweene) but my players showed great fighting spirit.

“We knew the Pirates profile. We knew they were dangerous. My team’s performance was close to perfection. It had to be.”

Despite a subsequent Rantie/McCarthy inspired defeat on the cabbage patch that is the Orlando Stadium, Komphela remains an over-achiever this season.

As for his relationship with then-national boss Palacios in 1992, Khompela grinned: “I remember well how Augusto made me captain of the national team. It was Palacios who introduced me to leadership – so it was interesting to achieve victory against my leader, my mentor, my coach.

“Augusto came up to me before he game and said: ‘We have to kill each other today,’ but no son can be happy murdering his father. We just scored beautiful goals.”

Read it carefully. This man Khomphela has the verbal acumen of Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp and, arguably, the recuperational skills of Sunderland’s Martin O’Neill. Give him the longevity in management offered to Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger, and South Africa will have a coach to conjure with.

NEDBANK CUP QUARTER-FINAL DRAW:
Amazulu (my choice) v Santos
Kaizer Chiefs v Free State Stars
SuperSport United v Jomo Cosmos
Mamelodi Sundowns v Maritzburg United

This column first appeared in www.thenewage.co.za. A newspaper well worth a read… my column Neal and Pray appears every Tuesday… and it’s only R3.50!

Itumeleng Khune: South Africa's mysterious disappearing goalkeeper. Anybody seen him?

Remember me? Itumeleng Khune, SA's No1

Has anybody seen Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune? I mean, actually seen him as opposed to reading a club statement about his current state of fitness? It's been over two months. And apparently he's going to "start training on his own in January, with a comeback in February."
While all eyes in South African football were on last night’s Telkom Knock-out final which saw Orlando Pirates crush Wits 3-1 (Daine Klate, Port Elizabeth's greatest footballing export, take a bow), rival Kaizer Chiefs fans have spent recent weeks – no, months - wondering what has happened to Khune, South Africa’s first choice goalkeeper during the World Cup here last year. Brilliant reflex keeper, superb distributor, wanted by Nottingham Forest last I heard.

But he's gone. Vanished off the face of the earth. If you're out there mate, email me: nealcollins@hotmail.com. No questions asked.

In a nation which boasts, according to marketing estimates, 14 million ardent Amakhosi fans, the gold-and-black brand has been having serious problems. A storm over Jimmy Tau’s captaincy was followed by accusations of nepotism against Kaizer Motaung’s family-run business. And then Khune went AWOL days after being castigated for wasting time in South Africa’s catastrophic 0-0 draw against Sierra Leone on October 8, at around the same time the Amakhosi's general manager Bobby "CV" Motuang was announcing him as their new captain.

Roused by a squeaky 1-0 win over Mamelodi Sundowns last Sunday, head coach Vladimir Vermezovic is only too aware how much his side needs a consistent No1.

Last week at Loftus Versfeld, that man was Arthur Bartman, a 39-year-old journeyman whose career started at African Wanderers way back in 1995. Man of the match for a series of astounding saves, Vermezovic claimed Bartman was in discussions with Chiefs over a new contract.

Worryingly, that’s the first Bartman had heard of those talks, though he's now apparently considering signing on for another season.

So while VV, under huge pressure before last week’s win over a Sundowns side hunting top spot, promises: “We will go all out for the title,” discriminating Amakhosi fans are more worried about the sudden disappearance of Khune, the darling of Naturena as any regular reader of Twitter will attest (does SABC's model presenter @MinnieDlamini know where he is?).

With Chiefs currently fourth in the SAPL with 24 points from 14 games, VV said: “It is our main goal to win the title this season. It is not good for a big club like Chiefs to not have won the title for such a long time. We have made this our main objective this season.”

Of course they have. But while VV told the fans “I want to thank them for being our 12th player” concerns over Khune grow before the gold-and-black striped “Zebras” conclude their year against Free State Stars at Soccer City and AmaZulu in Durban.

All that is known is this. Khune was reported to have gone down with pneumonia on or about October 10, while questions over Bafana’s farcical failure to reach the African Nations Cup finals were still raging across the nation. Our last view of the mineworker’s son from Tshing near Ventersdorp was that sad dance the players engaged in, when SAFA still thought their boys had qualified for Gabon and Equatorial Guinea next year.

Then, over a month later, we were told Khune, the 24-year-old who grew up idolising South Africa’s cricketers, had a groin strain. In British football, a “groin strain” is often a spurious injury invented to hide deeper concerns over a player’s future. There was talk of an operation and a further two month hiatus.

As the mysterious disappearance deepened, the club released a statement on Khune last week – and claim he will be back in action some time in Febuary.

They do not mention whether he had surgery on that groin and quote him as saying: "I'm recovering well from my injury. I'm getting there. It is frustrating, but I guess each and every player has to go through this in his career at some point.

"I will be back sometime in February. In fact, I will return early in January to start training on my own and then join the rest of the team in February.”

And, apart from revealing both Khune and Siphiwe Tshabalala are currently negotiating new contracts, that’s it. Did they speak to him in person, or did Chiefs release a statement to ease concerns over their goalkeeper? And if he's fine, why are they thinking of adding 23-year-old  goalkeeper Carl Bauerrichter to a well-stocked glove compartment which already includes Kabelo Metsimetsi, Thela Ngobeni and Bartman (who is still mulling over that new contract)?

Either way, four sentences are not really enough to explain a five-month absence of South Africa's finest goalkeeper in my book. But get well soon, Itumeleng. The 14 million Amakhosi need you.

This story appeared in the exciting new Sunday newspaper Scoop! in South Africa yesterday. Have a look at www.scoopnews.co.za. And buy it every week.

Kaizer steps in to save his Chiefs: when saying sorry is simply the right thing to do

Kaizer Motaung proved on Thursday that he is as sharp off the field at 67 as he was on it, when he was tearing American defences apart 40 years ago.

Affectionately known as “Tshintsha Guluva” for his ability to confound the opposition, the founder and father of Kaizer Chiefs came out with a humble apology for his son Bobby’s behaviour with impeccable timing – about an hour after I called for South Africa’s greatest footballing icon to do exactly that on Twitter and Facebook (see www.twitter.com/nealcol).

While so many of the South African newspapers preferred to focus on the Currie Cup and cyling (The Star in particular!), the captaincy saga at the Amakhosi has been the real sporting story of the week. And in one brave statement, Kaizer has eased the fears of an estimated 14 million Amakhosi with these words: “I would like to convey, with great humility, my heartfelt regret and unreserved apologies at the offence these comments have caused to many of our supporters; people who are at the heart of Kaizer Chiefs.”

When I suggested football manager Bobby Motaung, Kaizer’s son, had upset the fans on Thursday, I was subject to personal abuse and anonymous phone calls – though there was also a significant groundswell of support for daring to reflect exactly how repugnant nepotism is, even in a family-run business.

Bobby, while shrugging off the storm over Jimmy Tau’s loss of the captain’s armband without conviction, said at his press conference: “As for those who dream that Bobby Motaung must step down, that Bobby Motaung must go, it is a dream! Bobby Motaung goes nowhere. I was not appointed by ANC or IFP. I did not apply for this job, I did not submit a CV. My father invested his life in this club, this is a family business. You must understand that. I will be here as long as this company exists.”

Such arrogance is simply unacceptable to the legions of Amakhosi fans who pay good money to watch their side and buy their gold-and-black replica shirts. As I said on Thursdsay: No fans means no club. That is the universal mantra of global football, no matter who runs the club or how much money is pumped in to it.

I would love to delve further into the email exchanges, the twitter twangles, the Facebook furore, the kick-off.com conflicts (total responses number 3,000 and rising as I write) which surrounded Thursday’s blog, which gained more hits than any of my stuff, even during the World Cup last year when I was launching a stout defence of South Africa’s ability to host a near-perfect tournament.

Suffice to say, 90 percent of the responses were positive. A cruel minority were unbelievably personal and abusive. Many called for a boycott of their beloved club, starting in Polokwane on Saturday night, when they face Platinum Stars for a second successive week after last Sunday’s dreadful 2-1 Telkom Knock-out defeat.

Kaizer Motaung has ensured that boycott will not go ahead. The Peter Mokabe stadium will be rocking. Chiefs will kick-off against the Dikwena at 8.15pm on Saturday night with Tinashe Nengomasha captaining the team while goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune, a good choice in my opinion, will take over the armband when he is fully recovered from a bout of pneumonia in a fortnight.

As always, the ageless Kaizer is one step ahead of the game. I believe his apology justifies everything I wrote on Thursday. It may even save Bobby Motaung’s job, though many are still calling for his head. But that isn’t the point. Below, lifted from the Kaizer Chiefs website, is the full text of the executive chairman’s statement.

Read it. Understand it. Kaizer Motaung may run a family business, but unlike his son, he recognises Kaizer Chiefs also belongs to the estimated 14 million Amakhosi fans within South Africa’s borders and beyond. Kaizer has given the club back to the people. End of.

The Executive Chairman’s Statement

Following the press conference yesterday when the team’s captaincy issue was addressed and at which the Football Manager made certain unfortunate comments, I would like to convey, with great humility, my heartfelt regret and unreserved apologies at the offence these comments have caused to many of our supporters; people who are at the heart of Kaizer Chiefs.

We are only here because of their support over the years and I would like to assure our supporters that we will never take their support for granted; we sincerely appreciate that Kaizer Chiefs’ success has been due to their unflinching support whether we have won or lost.

Like most teams we too have our challenges and because of our profile some of these challenges have to be addressed under the glare of the public eye. The emotive nature of the game of soccer means that, at times, comments are made in the heat of the moment and should be considered in that light. This is however not making light of certain comments which I consider are inappropriate.

We intend to do our utmost to honour the support we receive and I personally would like to reassure our supporters that my personal endeavour is to make them proud of being Kaizer Chiefs fans by winning and by conducting ourselves with grace and humility.

Mr. Kaizer Motaung, Executive Chairman