A mutiny is brewing up at troubled local football giants Mochudi Centre Chiefs where supporters are allegedly planning an ouster of the team’s current management.
On a day that the team players boycotted scheduled BTC Premiership match against Miscellaneous, details are now emerging that fed up supporters are grouping and planning to ring changes at the Kgatleng outfit.
The management of Chiefs also seem to have got a whiff of the impending recall, with club chairman Raynond Tsheko blaming what he termed a ‘third force’ for the current crisis.
While details are sketchy, frustrated team supporters are said to have eyed the 17th of this coming month as the D-day to ‘recall the current committee.’
In an interview with Sunday Standard, some of the supporters said there is now a need for fresh faces and new ideas to lead the team into a new era.
“The team has had familiar faces at the helm for a very long time now and it is not improving. We are promised change every season but nothing has come out,” the supporter explained.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the supporter said while there is no doubt that the team is struggling financially, there was also a lack of transparency or credibility in the current committee.
“While we acknowledge that it is difficult to find sponsors, we are also of the view that the lack of credibility, accountability and transparency within the team management is also contributing to sponsors’ snubbing of our team,” the source explained.
The source said as a club, Chiefs is among the biggest brabds with a large following and therefore should not be struggling.
“Right now, the current management can’t even ensure the supporters replicas, which are a source of funds, is available. This is a concern. If you look at our supporters at games, you will realise that most of them still wear the Vega branded replica, which came during our successful period. This is because then, replicas were made easily available for supporters,” the source said.
“Other replicas with sponsor brands which came thereafter have not been available to most supporters, hence they are not so easily visible as they have not been made easily available to supporters. This in a way shows we are not exhausting potential sources of income hence our struggles,” he continued.
He also lamented that unlike Rollers, who is their biggest rivals, Magosi has been noticeably left behind in terms of social media activations, thus leading to a regress in the brand.
“When the current committee was re-elected, they promised to do better and to seriously activate the team’s social presence. Nothing has been done yet. They should have learnt from Rollers which is now among Africa’s top 30 football clubs in the social media scene,” he observed.
“What is worrying is that we have very good personnel at our disposal that can do some of these things for us without pay, just for the love of the team. However, they cannot work under the bottlenecks imposed by the current committee,” he said.
Adding a voice, another supporter confirmed that the supporters have set their eyes on the 17th as the day to correct the wrongs at Chiefs.
“Most of us are of the view that things need to change at the club. The current committee has done its job but they cannot take us any further. We have advised that may be it is time they hand over but they seem keen not to,” the supporter said.
According to the supporter, lack of transparency and credibility, as shown by the ‘alleged insinuation’ that not much monies were made from the Chiefs Rollers clash points to a need for a change of guard.
“We cannot accept that not much was made while there seem to be no accountability for the cash payments made at the entrance on the said day. We know a lot supporters did not buy tickets and paid cash, which we know was collected by some committee members at the gates. There should be accountability for such monies,” the source said.
“It is also a source of concern that while the current committee professes to struggle, they never communicate with us supporters, who are the chief financiers of the team,” said the supporter.
“What is surprising is that even though they are struggling, we hear that they are already saying that we as supporters cannot recall them. Why can’t they do the honourable thing and quit?”the supporter querried.
