Jeff Butler: Hard taskmaster who forged SA’s iconic soccer team
1934-2017
JEFF Butler, who has died in England after a long illness at the age of 83, was a spectacularly successful soccer coach whose epic performances with Kaizer Chiefs are still fresh in the memory 20 years after he left the club.
The founder and chairman of Kaizer Chiefs, Kaizer Motaung, brought Butler out from Cyprus in 1988 to turn his underperforming club’s fortunes around.
Butler had made a name for himself as a coach in Zambia, and Motaung was convinced he was the man he needed.
The hard-talking, no-nonsense, workaholic Englishman wasted no time proving him right.
He instituted a massive shake-up, ruthlessly and not without controversy getting rid of previously untouchable stars he considered a bit long in the tooth and past their best, and began identifying and mentoring young talent which he built into one of the most formidable teams South Africa has ever seen.
In his debut season he won the JPS Knockout tournament and proved this was no fluke by becoming National Soccer League champions the following season.
In four separate stints with Amakhosi, in 1988-89, 1991, 1992 and 1995-96, Butler won three league titles, in 1989, 1991 and 1992, which made him a legend in the domestic game.
Winning the league championship just once is more than most coaches realistically hope for. To win the championship and the national cup in a single season is regarded worldwide as the ultimate achievement for any club.
In two extraordinary seasons, 1991 and 1992, Butler won the treble, the league and two cups. In 1992 he edged out Hellenic to clinch his third league title, won the BP Top Eight and BoB Save Super Bowl, and came agonisingly close to a fourth trophy before losing a thrilling Coca-Cola Cup final to Clive Barker’s AmaZulu.
Other cups he won included the Ohlsson Challenge and the Charity Spectacular.
The teams he fielded in 1991 and 1992 are looked back on as the most talented ever to take the field in South Africa.
They boasted many of the biggest stars the local game has ever seen, including Doctor Khumalo, Donald “Ace” Khuse, Lucas Radebe, Neil Tovey, Chippa Molatedi, Garner Seale, Trevor Mthimkhulu, Wellington Manyathi, Howard Freese, Ntsie Maphike, Scara Thindwa and Shane McGregor.
Talented as they were, however, Butler came down hard on crowd-pleasing for the sake of it, especially if it cost the team. He made it clear they were not there to showcase their individual brilliance but to win games. This meant putting the team first.
It was an uncompromising philosophy that put him on a collision course with the young, carefree and outrageously talented Khumalo, who loved to wow the crowds with his dribbling skills and ability to dance through opponents.
During one game, Khumalo closed down the ball instead of crossing to McGregor, who was in a better position to score. That led to a tonguelashing from Butler at halftime that Khumalo never forgot. They clashed so bitterly that Motaung had to step in and broker a peace deal which essentially meant Khumalo had to listen to Butler.
After Butler’s heroics in 1991 he was chosen as the first Bafana Bafana coach after South Africa’s readmission to international soccer by Fifa.
Sadly, for him personally and for the national side, his tenure ended without him overseeing a single game, which was something of a record, after he was found to have falsified his curriculum vitae.
Butler left in 1996 but Motaung persuaded him to come back and work with the youth team academy for four months.
He stayed for two years. He was as passionate about development as he was about winning trophies.
After finally retiring he moved to Spain with his wife, Valerie, but couldn’t stop thinking about the game. He was always looking at the league table in South Africa and across Africa.
He had local football websites constantly open on his computer.
Butler, who was born in England on January 8 1934, is survived by Valerie, his wife of 52 years, and four children. — Chris Barron
That led to a tonguelashing from Butler at half-time that Doctor Khumalo never forgot