By Siphiwe Hlongwane
There seems to be a big problem brewing between technical directors and head coaches in South African football. With the new PSL season looming on the horizon, a number of coaces have lost their jobs and are seemingly being replaced by the very same technical directors who were appointed to assist them.
As I am writing this article I feel especially bad for Neil Tovey. The former Bafana Bafana defender was this week shown the door by AmaZulu, despite guiding the side to their first cup final in two decades this past season. It was clear that tovey, together with his assistant Calvin Peterson, were starting to get things right at Usuthu; the team was starting to compete for trophies again.
There are rumours circulating that Tovey’s departur was hastened by the breakdown in his relationship with Amazulu’s technical director Roger Palmgren. Tovey was even quoted in the media as saying that Palmgren is the reason that he was fired and went on to state that Palmgren does not have a clue about football and he will take the team nowhere.
It’s a pity that somehow coaches and the so called technical directors can’t find a way to work together. It seems as if half the time technical directors are there to take over or act as watchdogs to coaches instead of putting their expertise together to take South African football forward. Thus it is no surprise that the national team performs so badly because the people meant to take the game forward are dragging it backwards with petty politics.
Administrators and club owners themselves are also not without blame. Too often owners want to meddle in the business end of the game and it is time for them to leave the running of the teams to the professionals.
To finish this off, I would like to congratulate Tovey for a job well done at Amazulu, although he had his ups and downs, he really managed to push the team to better heights during his time. Manqoba Mngqithi has taken over the coaching reigns and hopefully he will not suffer the same fate as Tovey.
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