SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's football giants Kaizer Chiefs fire coach after miserable season

Record ID: 455341

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's football giants Kaizer Chiefs fire coach after miserable season
  • Date: 9th March 2007
  • Summary: (AD1) JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KAISER CHIEFS SUPPORTERS CELEBRATING FOOTBALL TEAMS AND OFFICIALS WITH GIANT CAKE KAISER CHIEFS DURING MATCH AGAINST UNKNOWN TEAM IN BLUE AND WHITE STRIP
  • Embargoed: 24th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA906VIATMEKF0TZT7B3JR3G208
  • Story Text: South Africa's best-known football team the Kaiser Chiefs are usually at the top of the country's premier league. But, their poor performance over the season has seen the champions toppled off their throne. Comeback efforts have started with the firing of their German coach. It's time to go back to the drawing board for South Africa's soccer giants - the Kaiser Chiefs. The chiefs who have topped the country's premier league eleven times so far, came a distant third last season. They have already been humbled four times in succession this season. Their fans are so bitter they've had to play some matches behind closed doors for fear of violence.
    On Monday (March 5), the team sacked its German-born coach Ernst Middendorp and replaced him for three months with Kosta Papic, the former coach of their arch-rivals the Orlando Pirates.
    "This will be very difficult for me and very dangerous to immediate to start to change everything or something. It is not necessary, the fresh blood now, what is coming in a club, actually to lift the players up, and a little bit of luck, is coming and Chiefs is coming in the right track. I don't think so, that we need something extra ordinary or some magic stick...is no, everything is there, and the players are there. Only what we hope is to prepare this team for the next season, to see which kind of player is really want to play for Kaiser Chiefs, and who is really committed, and who is really want to fight for every single match." Papic said.
    The Soweto-based team is currently at seventh place in the league standings. Papic will have to perform under intense pressure and expectations for quick results or face the same fate as his German predecessor.
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