The Truth About Chiefs And Us…

28 November 2012

As you’ve probably seen if you’ve turned to the Doctor Khumalo column, Doctor is no longer writing for us. And this not because he doesn’t want to, which for me is the sad part. And it’s also not because the fans no longer want to hear from him. Nope, this is because Kaizer Chiefs management, at this time, has decided to try and stop you from receiving Chiefs content in Soccer-Laduma. The exact reason for Chiefs’ spat with Soccer-Laduma is a bit of a mystery to me. On numerous occasions I have sent requests for ‘clear the air talks’ – to find a way forward. As recently as last week we sent correspondence to Kaizer Chiefs to open up talks, and until now they haven’t even had the professional courtesy to acknowledge that the correspondence was received.

People continue to ask me why? Why the beef between you guys and Kaizer Chiefs? To this day I can honestly say that no specific reason has been given to us. At first I thought it was a story we wrote about their former fitness coach Elsa Storm. A story, which in fact came to us from one of the team that runs their own Amakhosi magazine – a story which they as the mouthpiece of the club would never have been able to run – but a story that needed to be told.

This story was confirmed to us by one of the first team coaches at the time and by Elsa Storm herself. That story was denied by Chiefs, only for it to be proven correct a few weeks later. There have been times when some of the stuff we have written has not materialised because that is the way of football – deals fall through. There have been other instances where we have given our opinions on certain matters at Chiefs which may not have sat well with them. But we certainly have no vendetta against this club. In fact, we see Kaizer Chiefs as a proud flag bearer for South African football, just like we do Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and a host of others.

The sad thing is that the Chiefs players who want to speak, and the fans that want to hear them, are hurt most by what has happened. We will continue to get Kaizer Chiefs interviews. It’s our job to speak to all the teams for the sake of our readers. If you are a Kaizer Chiefs supporter, we will find a way to bring you your news. At times there will be interviews with players who just plain want to speak to Soccer-Laduma regardless of being told not to. We’re told any Chiefs player that does an interview with Soccer-Laduma gets fined by the club. But they’re grown men and can make their own decisions. Regardless, it would be better if we could talk to players and coaches with the blessing of this magnificent club rather than under the current circumstances. Hopefully, with the new year quickly approaching, we can sit down and find a way forward.

Now I guess a few of you may see this as airing our ‘dirty laundry’ and we could have carried on and tried our best to make everything look like it was okay. But that would be lying to you, and that will never happen. You deserve to know what is going on with your newspaper at all times.

We understand our responsibility to service you with football passion week in and week out.  We will do whatever it takes to open channels for the news that you require to flow to you. At times, there may be problems, but it’s our job to find a way, and we will never stop trying to do our very best for you in that endeavour. Our pledge is that we will continue to try and solve whatever problem Kaizer Chiefs seem to have with us. Football belongs to the supporters. So do we. To Chiefs, our door is always open. But our responsibility will always be to our readers, the football supporters!

Shapa Clint!