The management of Kaizer Chiefs read with shock and disdain over this past weekend a newspaper article which appeared in the Saturday Star on the 10th November, as the Amakhosi were preparing to face Bloemfontein Celtic in a Telkom Knockout match.

The said article, written by the newspaper's soccer writer Nkareng Matshe, ran a story claiming that there had been an altercation at a training session on the 6th November between coach Muhsin Ertugral and striker Kaizer Motaung Junior at the ABSA Stadium as Chiefs prepared for their ABSA Premiership clash with Moroka Swallows, which was played on the 7th November.

Kaizer Chiefs would like, in the strongest way, to condemn the fabrications written by Matshe -- who has a history of distorting the facts particularly with regards stories around Chiefs, as he has proven over the past couple of years.

As far back as 2004, Matshe was banned from attending press conferences and other media activities at the Kaizer Chiefs Village as he had previously fabricated stories around The Amakhosi. With a history of not being on the mark with his stories, The Amakhosi would like to urge their fans to discount the story written by Matshe about an alleged conflict between coach and his player.

The reality is that the player and the coach did have a disagreement, but not to the level as blown out of proportion by the newspaper. Disagreements in a team environment do occur from time to time but the player did not leave training as claimed in the article.

Furthermore, in the article that appeared in the Saturday Star, Matshe claims that Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral swore at his players in German at half time during Chiefs PSL game in Rustenburg against Platinum Stars on the 21st October and that Kaizer Junior responded to him in German. No such incident occurred and the Chiefs coach is contractually obliged to speak to his players only in English, so as to avoid any misunderstandings.

Chairman Speaks

Amakhosi Chairman Kaizer Motaung has come out and said that such stories in the media are created and fabricated to cause mayhem and sow seeds of discontent within the team.

"This story came out in a major national newspaper on the morning that we were going to play an important Cup game. From this we can safely say that there is something sinister about this whole issue, this event allegedly happened in Durban and there were Durban-based journalists as well as photographers and a television crew present there.

"Why didn’t any of them come forward with this alleged incident? This is a plot to destabilize the team ahead of some crucial matches over the next few weeks," said Motaung Snr.