Kaizer Chiefs Supporters’ Memorandum of Concerns

TO:	Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (Mr. Kaizer Motaung and The Board)
FROM:	Kaizer Chiefs Football Club Supporters
DATE:	14 May 2021
RE:	Memorandum of Concerns

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Kaizer Chiefs last lifted a PSL trophy in 2015 during Stuart Baxter’s time as head of the first team. The club is about to finish a sixth season without silverware with a possibility of also finishing outside the top 8 for the second time in the same period. This is an inexcusable and embarrassing record for a club of the magnitude and stature of Kaizer Chiefs. We do acknowledge the strides the team has made in reaching the quarterfinals of CAFCL for the first time in the history of the club but this shouldn’t even be an achievement when clubs with lesser resources play CAFCL football regularly.

As Kaizer Chiefs supporters, we have been watching our team in a downward spiral season after season with our trophy cabinet being filled up with nothing but empty promises. It was on 18 April 2018 when the club released a statement which in part read “One of the notable decisions from the meeting is that decisive changes will have to be implemented at the end of the season to remedy the situation. At this stage, circumstances do not permit for us to make immediate changes. However, we are looking to have a complete overhaul of the team before the commencement of the new season.” What followed this statement was an appointment of a head coach (Giovanni Solinas) a mere two weeks before the start of the new season which was preceded by the announcement of three players, Khama Billiat, Letlhogonolo Mirwa, an untested player from the amateur ranks of SAFA regional league and Andriamirado Andrianarimanana, a player whose signature was to haunt the club two seasons later.

In 2018, for the first in many years the club had 3 different head coaches who never inspired confidence from the moment they were unveiled. These coaches were also completely different from each other, which begs a couple of questions, what does Kaizer Chiefs look for in a coach nowadays? What is our football philosophy as a football club? The appointments in the recent past suggests that the club hasn’t really grappled with these questions.

Last season, we lost the league on the last day of the season and it just became business as usual for the club. There was absolutely nothing said to the supporters, no words of comfort and encouragement to indicate that the club feels our pain and that things will get better. We are left with no choice but to believe that we have become cash cows for the club. The only type of communication we get most of the time from the club is when our loyalty is exploited to sell merchandise and various products of the different companies that sponsor the club. We have basically became customers more than we are football supporters to the club.

We have tried to raise our grievances through petitions and social media platforms to no avail. To this effect, we have realised that our remote efforts are not sufficient in preventing and stopping the downward spiral of Kaizer Chiefs. It is for this reason that we have decided to go to our home in Naturena to raise our grievances.

This is us peacefully saying we want to be heard by the club. It is a cry across the class divide of Kaizer Chiefs supporters, from Soweto to Durban, from Cape Town to East London, from Gqeberha to Seshego. It is the voice of a CEO, a voice of a que Marshal, merchandiser, marketer and politician who all share the love of Kaizer Chiefs to say Enough is Enough, we have been a laughing stock for far too long.

We call on Ntate Kaizer Motaung and the Kaizer Chiefs Board to heed and address the following demands:

1. Restore the club’s lost playing philosophy and status as a big club.
   1. Immediately build a competitive squad by recruiting quality players to restore the club back to its glory days.
   2. Recruit coaches that fit the playing philosophy and who identify with the brand of football fit for a big club like Kaizer Chiefs.

2. We demand a squad overhaul as promised by the club in the statement of 18 April 2018. The squad overhaul must address our lack of quality and depth in the team but critically, it should also be done with the objective of refreshing the team and bring the average age down.

3. We demand a development of a vision to conquer AFRICA and consistently build a team for this purpose.

4. We demand the club to work on cultivating good relationships with Premier Soccer League and National First Division clubs in order to achieve the points above.

5. We demand effective utilisation of the football scouting department and for it to be empowered with resources and decision making powers to embark on a renewal project. If used effectively, the scouting department has the ability to save the club money in the transfer market in the long run.

6. Our MDC team has flattered to deceive in the past couple of seasons with minimal output until recently. There has to be a concerted effort to develop players not only for the club but for the overseas market and more crucially our MDC team should be a catalyst to build relationships with less resourced clubs. Furthermore this will generate revenue which will ensure the club’s sustainability into the future.

7. Kaizer Chiefs must play its role in development of women’s football by forming a women’s football team to compete in the premier women’s football league as early as the 2022/23 season.

8. We demand the chairman to account to the supporters through various media platforms. The revival of The Chairman’s Columns on the club website would be a good starting point but we also need a platform where the chairman can occasionally engage supporters in a dialogue.

9. Whilst we as supporters appreciate the great work being done by our marketing department, we would like the club to prioritise its primary business which is football. At no stage should corporate Kaizer Chiefs be more important than football.

10. The club should appoint a General Manager/CEO whose mandate should be to institutionalise accountability of all operational functions towards the board and to ensure equitable allocation of resources across all functional areas supporting the football business.

11. We demand the club to finalise the issue of supporters’ membership cards which has been outstanding for several years

12. The club should always be mindful about when and how it transitions senior players out of the team who have given their best over the years. The club should honour some of these senior players and give supporters an opportunity to do the same.

We do not make these demands lightly and we believe that all of them are reasonable and practical. We also make these demands constructively with love and peace with a belief that there should always be a dialogue between the club and its supporters to avoid ugly scenes last experienced at Moses Mabhida Stadium in April 2018.

We demand an acknowledgment of receipt of the demands to be published on the club’s website and social media platforms within two days of receipt. We demand a full response to the demands within a period of three weeks (15 working days) upon receipt of this memorandum, the response must be published in the club’s social media platforms (Club’s website, Facebook, Twitter & Instagram).

Lastly, we would like to wish the club the best of luck in the CAF Champions League quarterfinal match against Simba SC and we plead with the players and technical team to give it their best.

Prepared by: Thabiso Mishack Mohlabeng and Mkhuseli Ngcube

Hand delivered by: Mohau Tlali

Gift Ngoepe

Themba Matlala

Papi Mosothoane

Received by: Jessica Motaung

Signature:…………………

(signed copy to be retained by supporters)