Sokhela sticks to his guns over Khoza support
AmaZulu GM distances club from report that there is a drive to topple PSL chairman
AmaZulu GM Lunga Sokhela has defended his statement that Irvin Khoza is the only person in SA capable of leading the Premier Soccer League (PSL).
Sokhela also explained his reasoning for tweeting on Monday — in response to a newspaper report that six clubs were plotting to overthrow Khoza — that AmaZulu fully supported the PSL chairman.
Sokhela tweeted: “Apparently there’s an article about 6 clubs wanting to topple Irvin Khoza. We @AmaZuluFootball would never support that. Dr Khoza is the only individual in SA that can lead the PSL and has our full support.”
Sokhela conceded he had recently been critical of the PSL.
His criticism concerned the arbitration over the eligibility of Tendai Ndoro, in which points were deducted from Ajax Cape Town‚ resulting in their relegation‚ and the awarding of points to some clubs‚ causing AmaZulu to drop out of the top eight.
The High Court in Johannesburg has overturned the Ajax arbitration decision and the PSL has appealed against the high court ruling.
“The reason for my tweet was that … once you mention six clubs and you don’t say which clubs there is space for people to fill it with their own information‚” Sokhela said.
“But obviously‚ with the climate
as it is now‚ people must not … assume that it’s one of the two — AmaZulu and Ajax — who would be obvious [suspects]‚ because of this whole relegation and top eight saga,” he said.
“We wanted to clarify it upfront — because we didn’t want people to start filling in that vacuum with any information — that we were not involved in any plot or any thinking to topple Khoza.
“Yes there will always be differences in terms of the opinion when it comes to certain things. It happens in any organisation‚ and that’s all that it is.
“I wanted to clarify that because I’ve also obviously been [quoted] in the same newspaper being critical of the whole process. So I don’t want people to think that uLunga is part of some unknown plot to disturb or to topple people.”
The part of Sokhela’s tweet that drew a torrent of criticism, though‚ was his statement that only one person‚ Khoza‚ was capable of leading the PSL.
Asked if perhaps his statement had been taken out of context‚ Sokhela said “people can take it the way they want to”.
Only Khoza had the ability and the respect among all clubs to lead the organisation.
Khoza was “very important to the league” regarding his wealth of knowledge, “in terms of not just the sponsorships … and what he’s managed to do‚ even through tough economic times [but also] the way that he’s managed a lot of the issues that have come up over the years to put the league where it is. There is nobody right now in football that has that ability and the respect amongst all clubs to lead the organisation.”