Gallants their own worst enemy

MARUMO Gallants shot themselves in the foot by unsettling their persevering players ahead of important matches this season.

Given their financial constraints, Gallants don’t have a big squad in which players can be rotated. To add insult to injury, several players picked up injuries and suspensions at the business end of the season.

Their players had worked their socks off playing in two competitions which were running parallel over the past few weeks. Apart from playing around South Africa in the Premiership, Gallants also played on the continent in the Caf Confederation Cup.

Their fixtures took them to Madagascar, Libya, Zambia, Algeria, Egypt and Tanzania.

The club’s glaring lack of basic organisation saw their team stranded in Türkiye after Gallants had not booked tickets for connecting flights to Libya.

There was also a problem of four players who could not pass through Istanbul due to flight complications, and the team was hopelessly short of players on the bench subsequently.

The team also arrived without a kit in Libya. Out of desperation, Gallants chairperson Abram Sello then called in help from a “Good Samaritan” who was based in Libya, businessperson Ali Elzargha.

According to Elzargha, he had helped Gallants before. Thanks to his help, Gallants were able to fulfil their fixture, but then did not have the money to foot the bills and repay Elzargha for the debts he run up on behalf of the club.

Sello promised to secure the money to repay Elzargha but in the meantime, club officials Dina Dhlomo and Rufus Matsena would stay behind as collateral support. The two poor officials suffered a nightmare being held in Libya for three weeks and there was little support from Sello who said: “It was not a train smash.”

As a result of Gallants’ hopelessness, politicians, embassy officials and Safa stepped in to help resolve the matter, and the two officials duly returned to SA.

Last week it was reported that players were reluctant to train as Gallants had not paid out bonuses owed to them. They allegedly refused to get into the bus scheduled to take them to their afternoon training session.

In April, there were also reports that Gallants players did not receive payments. Despite the reports, Gallants declared that there are no outstanding bonuses owed to any Gallants players in a statement.

This was a hectic time for Gallants and management should have kept the players happy by giving them what was agreed upon.

In their last three matches Gallants suffered defeat, even at the hands of lowly Swallows who spent most of the season in the relegation zone. The costliest defeat of the three was the last one against Swallows because it cost the club their top-flight status.