Former Gaborone United (GU) assistant coach, Chris Rabalago, has accused the club’s management of excessively interfering in the affairs of the technical team.
Rabalago resigned from the Reds on Thursday while on suspension. The intelligent gaffer was served with suspension on November 3 on allegations of misconduct and bringing the name of the club into disrepute. While the club was busy doing its internal investigations, Rabalago hit them with a resignation letter as he pondered a move back to his childhood club, Notwane.
“I’ve resigned from GU because I could not agree with them on a number of issues. There was a time when officials instructed us not to field a certain player but I didn’t agree with them because we needed the player. Let me make it clear that I’m a professional and I’ll not let officials interfere in the affairs of the technical team,” said Rabalago on Friday afternoon.
He added that even head coach Elvis Chiweshe was shocked and wondered if that is how Botswana football is run.
He further alleged that some of the officials had a feeling that he is controlling the head coach too much.
“That man (Chiweshe) is a professional and I enjoyed working with him. He respected me and at times gave me some responsibilities hence some of the officials felt that I was controlling him,” he added.
On Friday, Rabalago told Sunday Standard that Notwane has approached him and he is considering the move.
“As we speak, I’m going to Molepolole to watch Notwane (against ECCO City Greens),” he said.
When contacted for comment, GU secretary, Hebert Letsebe, was shocked by Rabalago’s claims saying that they never interfere in the affairs of the technical team. He said that Rabalago’s claims are unfortunate and pointed out that at GU they have a proper structure which handles certain issues.
“Romeo (Benjamin) is the link between the management and technical team. We never approach them directly. The truth of the matter is that we suspended Chris after reviewing the performance of the team where he was implicated in a number of issues. Unfortunately, he resigned whilst the investigations were about to be finalised,” said Letsebe.
He pointed out that Rabalago has never shown any unhappiness since joining the Reds hence they are surprised by his allegations. Letsebe further quashed recent reports that part of the reason which forced Rabalago to quit is that they recently approached him regarding the head coach position. It is alleged that when Rabalago refused, it was when he was framed by the management.
“Those are unfounded allegations because we’re happy with our coach,” said the Reds’ secretary. His only gripe is that GU is not delivering the results hence they went all out to buy quality players. He dismissed stories that GU is not at the top of the log because they do not have quality strikers.
“I like to give example with Chiefs. If you look at them, they only have one striker (Mara Moloi) but they’re scoring goals. Their midfielders are doing the job and one would have thought that since we do have quality midfielders like Mandla (Mgadla), Stephen (Maposa) and Bakang (Moeng), they’ll also be scoring goals,” Letsebe concluded.
