Who's your Dady? Rwanda pay the price for identity crisis and Bafana must change travel plans

Identity crisis: Rwanda's Birori Dady; also known as DRC's
Etikiama Agiti Tady with his club side AS Vita Club

It has to rank as one of the silliest attempts at subterfuge in footballing history. Rwanda are OUT of Afcon 2015 and South Africa’s travel plans will have to be radically revamped to include Brazzaville.

Quite whether the new Bafana Bafana head coach Shakes Mashaba will enjoy this incredible tale is uncertain. Disqualified Rwanda are ranked 101 by FIFA while their late replacements in Group A, Congo, are ranked 78.

With Sudan (ranked 115 by FIFA) away first up on September 6 followed by Nigeria (33) in Cape Town on September 10, South Africa (ranked 69) will now play Congo away a month later as they reach the halfway point in a six-match qualifying schedule which ends, abruptly, on November 19.

Rwanda thought they had qualified for Group A with South Africa, Nigeria and Sudan after they ousted the Congo on penalties (both sides won 2-0 at home in a two-legged tie) but then came the storm over the number of passports held by a chap called Birori Dady.

With Egyptian giants Zamalek also raising concerns over Dady’s true identity after playing in the African Champions League against his club side AS Vita in the DRC, the full story began to unravel.

Sunday’s full CAF disciplinary statement read: “The protest by Congo contested the eligibility of the player Birori Dady aligned with Rwanda, and plays for the AS Vita Club of Kinshasa with Congolese (DRC) passport as Etekiama Agiti Tady, and a different age.

“Following investigations by CAF and on the basis of documents provided by the federations of Rwanda, Congo and DR Congo, and hearing the player's testimony on 11 August 2014 at CAF headquarters in Cairo, CAF established that the two identities only referred to a single person.

“While the Rwandan Football Federation (FERWAFA) maintained that to their knowledge the player Dady Birori had one identity, investigations revealed that he was summoned as Etekiama Agiti Tady by FERWAFA to join the national team of Rwanda.”

In effect, it’s a bit like South Africa playing Zimbabwe and calling up Knowledge Musona under an assumed name. Absolute madness when Birori (or Tady) plays his football as a home-grown player in the DRC with AS Vita.

Not very appealing: FERWAFA will fight disqualification

Predictably, Rwanda's FERWAFA today said they will appeal the CAF ruling, with their case set to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Success appears unlikely, though Dady only played in the first leg of their qualifier against Congo.

The shockwaves in Rwanda will be huge while they’ll be dancing in the streets of Brazzaville… but for South Africa there are more pressing problems before the trip to Sudan at the end of the month.

Shakes Mashaba arrived back in South Africa today after a useful 1-1 draw with the Under 20 AmaJitas in Cameroon on Saturday. But he missed last week’s absorbing live PSL action and he remains without an assistant coach or technical director just a fortnight before AFCON qualifying kicks-off with the grown-ups.

The latest word on those positions is this: the Technical Director position will be filled on the advice of FIFA’s technical guru Gerard Houllier, sources suggest that man will be “Dutch or German, somebody like Foppe de Haan, who was at Ajax Cape Town”.

According to my sources only Steve Komphela or Neil Tovey locally had sufficient qualifications for the role, which was supposed to be filled last week. Neither will now be considered. Shakes will report to Fran Hilton-Smith in the meantime – the former Banyana Banyana official now describes herself as SAFA’s “acting technical director”.

Shakes is likely to turn to Gordon Igesund’s No 2 Serame Letsoake as his assistant, though he will also involve his AmaJitas deputy Thabo Senong either as the new Under 20 coach or as a second assistant.

None of this fills me with glee. But Shakes knows best. His first priority will be to get his AmaJitas through the second leg against Cameroon. Then he will turn his attention to a new Bafana squad, who will attend a four-day camp before the Sudan trip.

Mashaba is leaving it late. But after a bright start to the new domestic season, perhaps that won’t matter. But we do know it can’t get any worse than what Rwanda are currently going through.

 SOCCERBALLZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za with Mark Fish airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. Ballz will also provide daily World Cup updates from next week.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

Out of Africa: the only way is UP for the Kaizer Chiefs African dream. Or is it OUT?

Unsavoury scenes: Chiefs surround referee Shikongo at Soccer City

PERHAPS the most telling quote on a painful Saturday night for South African football was THIS from Stuart Baxter: "My biggest regret is that, when the world sees officiating like they tonight, they laugh at Africa.”

He’s right. The 60-year-old from Wolverhampton has had a wide and varied career, ranging from Scotland to Scandinavia, Australia to Spain. And he’s rarely seen anything like he saw at Soccer City, where Kaizer Chiefs fell one goal short of reversing their 3-0 defeat against AS Vita in Kinshasa the week before.

And then of course we had Chiefs talking about withdrawing from CAF completely amid fears of a three-match ban from future African competition. Plus THIS quote (among others on Robert Marawa's MetroFM football show) from General Manager Bobby Motaung last night: "If you win against African teams away, you might be killed or not leave the Stadium."

To be honest, it's bad, but not that bad. But you get the drift of what Bobby is trying to say. Still, Chiefs chose to join the other seven Champions League rejects for this morning's April Fool's CAF Confederations Cup draw and will (presumably) play Ivory Coast's ASEC Mimosa in the play-off round for the group stages later this foolish month.

ASEC Mimosa were famously dispatched by Orlando Pirates on their run to African Champions in 1996, but they won the African Champions League in 1998 and have won the Ivorian championship 24 times, the last in 2010.

Had Chiefs pulled out - as they threatened to do for a few difficult hours on Monday - South African football would have been back in the doldrums after Orlando Pirates' epic journey to last season's final. But you can understand the thinking in the Motaung family corridors. As it is, they may well field a reserve team for the tie nobody is sure they really want to win.

So what went wrong with the Chiefs African dream? We can discuss the lack of AmaKhosi fans at the stadium on Saturday, the lack of atmosphere compared to their trip north the week before, the injuries to goalkeepers Itumeleng Khune and Reyaad Pieterse and the ankle problem picked up by striker Knowledge Musona.

But in essence, this was about the Namibian referee. Though Knowledge got the 10^th-minute goal Chiefs so urgently required, Rainhola Shikongo saw fit to deny the home side an even bigger advantage when he ruled out Kingston Nkatha’s 4^th minute goal with a dubious offsides decision.

Shikongo went on to deny two clear penalties – one an obvious handball, the other a shove in the box on Matthew Rusike – and despite a half-time lecture on time-wasting from AmaKhosi assistant boss Doc Khumalo, the referee consistently refused to rush goalkeeper Nguemba Lomboto who broke the six-second rule by handling the ball for 12 seconds or more at times.

Then there was the issue of injury time. With Morgan Gould finally producing the second goal in the dying minutes, Baxter was promised seven minutes of injury time. He said: “We were told seven minutes of optional time, then they said three. And when it got tight at the end, the referee only gave us 90 seconds.

“It’s hard enough playing in the African Champions League, but playing with an official like that makes it very difficult indeed. We were a better side than them, we know that.

“But what can I do? I have to say congratulations to AS Vita, good luck to them, I hope they do well in the Group Stages.”

Unlike Baxter, the Chiefs players chose to take out their frustrations on referee Shikongo, berating him verbally at the final whistle and coming close to a shoving match as officials rushed to intervene. A pitch invader or three added to the mayhem and Baxter groaned: “Our fans are behaving recklessly at the moment. But you can understand their frustration. It is frustrating when you see officiating like we’ve seen tonight.   

"The keeper was an embarrassment. Sometimes he took 15-16 seconds on the ball, it just got worse and worse.

“We get the second goal, hope the ref is counting the seconds the keeper took, but three minutes was a smack in the face. And we didn’t even get that.”

There is no question CAF competitions have a reputation for poor refereeing and dodgy away trips. Throughout the continent season-long unbeaten home records occur with a worrying frequency.

We had clues last season of course. Orlando Pirates’ problems at another DRC club TP Mazembe last season – a trip which included a television black-out, journalist detentions, confiscated sim cards, two penalties and an unjust red card – should have resulted in a lengthy ban for the Lubumbashi club. It didn’t. TP Mazembe were fined and went on to reach the final of the Confederations Cup with barely a blush of embarrassment.

For Baxter, the defence of AmaKhosi’s PSL crown now becomes the priority, along with a Nedbank Cup quarter-final against SuperSport United. You have to wonder how hard they will work to stay in the CAF Confederations Cup after all this.

The good news? Pieterse, who banged his head against a post making a save on Saturday, should be fit for tonight’s clash with rock-bottom Golden Arrows, and Khune should return for next weekend’s top-of-the-table clash against Mamelodi Sundowns.

The bad news? I understand Bernard Parker has been playing for some weeks with a heavily strapped ankle. Musona also has an ankle problem, picked up in the first half on Saturday.

With Sundowns, now level on points at the top of the PSL, to come on Saturday, Chiefs could find their season collapsing around them before the trip to the Mimosas. Baxter knows the mantra though: “Now we have to pick ourselves up and carry on with our season. We have to take this defeat on the nose.”

 BOLLOCKZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. 

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice.

Is this the end of the African road for Kaizer Chiefs? Here's the closest thing to a match report you're likely to get

UPHILL BATTLE: Shabba and Baxter

Kaizer Chiefs' shocking 3-0 demise in Kinshasa on Saturday, like Orlando Pirates supreme effort at TP Mazembe last year, will never be seen in South Africa. In fact, despite all those shenanigans in Lubumbashi last season, not a SINGLE Mzanzi journalist travelled to AS Vita on Saturday. Bizarre.

Fortunately the AmaKhosi’s efforts at over-turning that dire deficit at Soccer City on Saturday will be visible to all as Stuart Baxter’s men attempt to reach the Group Stages of the African Champions League. 

I can uncover no feasible reason from either the SABC or SuperSport as to why the crucial Champions League second round clash between South Africa’s most popular football team and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s finest went untelevised. Nor can any of the big soccer internet sites and newspapers explain why they failed to send a SINGLE reporter to the game.

So the nation went in to the big showdown BLIND. All I could muster during Sunday afternoon’s disastrous first leg in the Stade des Martyrs de la Pentecôte was this SMS from Baxter on the morning of the game: “Just going to squad meeting. Chaos reigns is Congo but lads have done well so far to stay focused.”

As the game unfolded on fuzzy video links, even fuzzier radio streams, computer crashes and twitter updates, it became clear that the home team’s 22-year-old striker Firmin Ndombe Mubele, capped six times by the DRC, was going to be the star of the night.

His first goal popped up on seven minutes. A few Chiefs chances later, he doubled the lead in the 35^th minute before completing his hat-trick and the scoreline a minute after half-time. AS Vita also allegedly hit the woodwork twice.

Two of those goal, apparently, were “wonder goals”,  a pair of classics. How can I be sure on the basis of blurry images and hearsay? Simple. Baxter was on the SMS within minutes of the final whistle.

This is his concise summary of events:

“We missed chances and they scored two wonder goals.

“At 1-0 we have a set play and that leaves Masha (Tefu Mashamaite) free with the keeper. He misses and they go straight down the other end and score. 3-0 comes from a Van Basten copy (a reference to a cracking volley for Holland in the 1988 European Championship final) minutes after half-time.

“It was a good game but we will have to dig deep in Joburg. Talk when we get back, Neal.”

And that’s it. Apart from a few messages and pictures from Kaizer Chiefs communications manager Vina Maphosa (and the patchy video below), we have little else to go on before AS Vita’s all-conquering heroes – who qualified for the Congo league play-off last week – arrive in South Africa for the second leg.

On twitter, we attempted to find ways in which we could #welcomeasvita, ranging from playing live Steve Hofmeyr songs in the hotel lobby to piling the Congolese squad in to a dodgy taxi for the trip to Soccer City next Saturday. There was even a suggestion which should send Kulubhuse Zuma to their pre-match meal.

But while SuperSport United coach Cavin Johnson complained to me that his side’s 1-0 defeat at Tunisia’s Etoile Sahel in the CAF Confed Cup had been marred by poor refereeing – centering on a disallowed Mame Niang goal – Baxter has yet to tell us of any shenanigans in the DRC on Sunday.

So assuming the PSL’s “penultimate” ref Victor Gomes doesn’t officiate next Saturday – he gave FIVE penalties in a single game three weeks ago – Baxter will have to rely on an emphatic 4-0 win at home or face playing with the also-rans in the CAF Confederations Cup..

But as I said to him before he left the Congo: “If David Moyes and Manchester United can recover from 0-2 in Greece to win 3-0 against Olympiacos after the season they’ve had, Kaizer Chiefs can do at least that against AS Vita.”

With his champions six points clear at the top of the PSL, Baxter and his men have lost just two out of 21 games since early November – to Platinum Stars and AS Vita. They have NEVER lost a home league game in 18 months under the Wolverhampton-born coach.

Yes, 4-0 would be miraculous. But stranger things have happened.


FULL VIDEO BELOW, shorter version HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVW-nW3Nuck

BOLLOCKZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. 

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal & Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice and charity bets for our Wingzofchange charity!  

The trouble with a treble: Kaizer Chiefs fighting on three fronts with VV and the Soweto Derby looming

Knowledge is Power: Musona celebrates

STUART BAXTER’s task becomes clearer – but trickier – every week. The closer the Kaizer Chiefs head coach gets to his goals, the darker the clouds will get. That's the trouble with a treble, even when you're on a 17-game unbeaten streak.

Yes, his on-loan Zimbabwean goal-poacher Knowledge Musona thumped home a first-half hat-trick in Maputo on Saturday – not that any of the local broadcasters bothered to televise the AmaKhosi’s emphatic 3-0 win against Liga Muculmana – and Baxter’s men cruised through to the second round 7-0 on aggregate.

But on Sunday, our Chiefs were greeted by news of an unwelcome trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo when AS Vita saw off Zimbabwe’s own “Glamour Boys” Dynamos 1-0 in Kinshasa after a goalless first leg in Harare.

The Knowledge hat-trick, missed by SABC and SuperSport, is HERE!


We all remember the last time a South African side went to the DRC on Champions League duty. Orlando Pirates went through hell at TP Mazembe at the same stage last year, with television black-outs, detained journalists, bogus red cards and TWO dodgy penalties.

But hey, Pirates survived and went on to the Group Stages and that stirring African Champions League final defeat against Al Ahly. And who’s to say Kaizer Chiefs can’t do the same?

Sure, the ankle ligaments twisted by Bafana Bafana’s No1 Itumeleng Khune won’t help matters, but they’ve got back-up. Former Nike talent search winner Reyaad Pieterse has been strong in Africa, earning the nickname “David James” (after the former England and Liverpool goalkeeper) and failing that, Baxter can turn to former AmaZulu stopper Brilliant Khuzwayo, who cut his teeth in the Under 23 national squad.

But now, with that trip to the DRC to come, Baxter must attend to his domestic duties. The Nedbank Cup has to be defended – and so does the PSL title after last season’s double in a glorious first season at Naturena for Wolverhampton-born “Mbax”.

Despite that six point lead at the top of the table, Baxter won’t be taking Alan Freese and his Platinum Stars for granted tomorrow (Wednesday) night at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium. Dikwena already have the MTN8 and Telkom KO in the bag this season, under-estimate them at your peril.

And then, the Soweto Derby on Saturday. Hold everything. The Ides of March put paid to Julius Caesar a few thousand years ago and arch-rivals Pirates have two potential back-stabbers: Serbian coach Vladimir Vermecovic is ready to use his shiny new work permit and Bafana striker Lehlonololo Majoro can hardly score less than his peers at arch-rivals Pirates.

As we said last week here, the presence of those two former Chiefs employess alone promises a lively derby at Soccer City, regardless of the Buccaneers’ limp 1-0 defeat against AmaTuks over the weekend.

With East London's Buffalo to come in the Nedbank Cup and both Bidvest Wits and Mamelodi Sundowns closing the gap at the top of the table, Baxter knows how difficult it will be to maintain that unbeaten run – which dates back to November 5 and the start of my current beard – on three fronts.

He grins: “We were so professional in Maputo, it’s hard when you go into a game winning 4-0 but we kept our motivation and concentration.

“We changed the way we normally play, we wanted to make it a test. We played with the 3 centre backs in case we want to use that when we are on the road in the rest of Africa. Our plan worked perfectly.

"Ask a big club anywhere in the world about their ambition and the answer will be the same. We are an ambitious club. Like other big clubs we go into each tournament to win.”

 Can they compete on three fronts? Can any big club? Yes. You can do just about anything when you've got a form guide reading WWWWWWWWWDDWWWW. 

BOLLOCKZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. 

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal & Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za.

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice and charity bets for our Wingzofchange charity! 

FINAL ANALYIS Drawlando: when a criticism becomes a compliment and Roger reaches for De Star

BACK TO RED! Rooi Mahamutsa

SIX months can be a lifetime in football. In half a year, the beautiful game can evolve beyond recognition, particularly in the heart of a throbbing Soweto. The very meaning of words can change, villains are born as heroes fade, African giants are cut down and rendered pointless pygmies.

When champions Orlando Pirates stumbled over the line in third-place after a series of draws at the end of last season, they were gleefully derided as “Drawlando” largely by Kaizer Chiefs fans, relishing their refound double-winning dominance.

This season, after a series of quite miraculous ties, the word “Drawlando” has turned from criticism to compliment. The second-leg draw against Kaizer Chiefs which put the Buccaneers in to the MTN8 final, the desperate final point against Al Ahly which saw them in to the knock-out phase of the African Champions League… and on Saturday night, the epic 1-1 draw which put them past Esperance on away goals.

Incredible. Counting the first leg 0-0 stalemate against the fearsome Tunisians at the Drawlando Stadium and the drawn MTN final which they lost on penalties to Platinum Stars, Pirates have drawn FIVE of their last SEVEN fixtures.

But in that time, Rogério Paulo Cesar De Sá has become simply Roger de Star as the apparently hopeless crusade for a second African Champions League title grinds towards an epic home-and-away conclusion.

The bizarre retirement of Benni “Goalmachine” McCarthy has been forgotten in the wake of Lennox “Bracela” Bacela’s move from Bloemfontein Celtic, the inspirational skipper Lucky “Sinister” Lekgwathi has been supplanted in the space of 90 epic minutes by one Ayanda “Stand-in” Gcaba.

We should mention too, the rise of Senzo “Spotstopper” Meyiwa at No1 after years of Moeneeb “Slimkat” Josephs in a heartbreaking glove story and the rise and rise of Lehlogonolo “Vieira” Masalesa whenever a midfield reinforcement was required.

And most importantly of all, the injured Siya “Ironman” Sangweni finds himself edged out in the defend-and-score stakes by Rooi “Mooi” Mahamutsa, goal-scoring hero of Tunis.

From the bitter hangover of the double-treble slump at the end of last season, Orlando Pirates find themselves two steps (how we wish it was a single final at a neutral venue) from continental domination for the first time since the slowly dimming legends of 1995.

Everything has changed. Reputations, fortunes, buzz words, heroes; they’ve all altered radically in six turbulent months, a period during which, I believe, has been despite the club chairman, no because of.

What was it Roger de Star said before a crusade which has flitted from Comores to Angola and on to a blacked-out DRC, from Egypt twice to the Congo and Tunisia? “"We have been underdogs since the first game we played in this competition, and that is fine, we are good with that, no problem.”

Winning is for sissies. Missed chances are a mere detail only SABC football analysts harp on about. Don’t bet against another two draws to clinch the crown.

And so the the FINAL DETAILS: Pirates play Al Ahly, penalty shoot-out winners over Cameroon's Coton Sport, at Orlando on November 2 in the first leg. And the trophy will be decided in Egypt on November 9.

And if you doubt Pirates can do it against the seven-time winners and reigning champions, try this from Don Mattera, an extract from his poem compiled last year on the 75^th anniversary of Buccaneering football:

”THEY WILL SING OR THEY WILL SAY:

AH, BEHOLD THE MIGHTY BUCCANEERS

THEY CONQUERED ALL THEIR PEERS

AND SURPASSED THE GRUELLING TEST

AND WEAR THE MOST-COVETED PRIZE:

THE GOLDEN STAR OF MOTHER AFRICA”

Drawlando. Shout it: DRAWLANDO! You know it makes sense.

BOLLOCKZ! my show on www.ballz.co.za, airs every Thursday from 9am. Roger de Star and Alan Freese both lined up for this week. See the Ballz channel on www.YouTube.com for our growing collection of interviews with the big names in South African football.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday inwww.thenewage.co.za.

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice!