Pascalinah Kabi
MASERU — It never rains but pours for Matlama.
Now, newly-appointed head coach Mokoena Mohale has quit the defending Vodacom Premier League champions.
His assistant, Khotso Mokalanyane, has also resigned.
This is happening just two weeks after Matlama fired their championship-winning coach Ntebele Taole.
This also comes just a week after Tse Putsoa threw the Vodacom Soccer Spectacular into turmoil over gate-takings.
Players at the club have also been reportedly unhappy over allowances and winning bonuses.
Mohale and Mokalanyane handed in their resignations last week but both said they had made independent decisions to walk out on the team.
Mohale, 34, said he quit in frustration because Matlama’s management was allegedly sabotaging his efforts to rebuild the team.
He claimed the management had refused to entertain players’ demands for “incentives” and “equipment”.
“Yes, it is true that I have resigned because the management refused to address players’ grievances for a very long time,” Mohale told the Sunday Express yesterday.
“I am not the kind of person who wants to be involved in dishonest dealings.”
He said the players were not happy that the management had not given them a share of last season’s Premier League and Vodacom Soccer Spectacular prize monies.
Matlama got M100 000 for the league crown and M360 000 for winning the tournament.
“The players have been asking to be given incentives and equipment but these things were never addressed,” Mohale said.
“They kept saying they would do so.”
He said he decided he could no longer put up with the situation at Tse Putsoa after discovering a top official of the club was allegedly plotting to sabotage him.
Mohale said he was in possession of a clip secretly recorded using a mobile phone in which the official was allegedly addressing players.
“I am in possession of a clip that proves one of the Matlama officials was busy working hard to ensure this team’s players are divided,” he claimed.
“I respect Matlama and I do not want to be seen to be creating instability but there are things which must come to an end for the betterment of the team.
“I am talking because I have full, clear information that there is one official who is working hard to create divisions among the players.”
Mohale said he had not discussed his decision to resign with his assistant Mokalanyane.
Meanwhile, Mokalanyane said he had resigned because of time constraints.
“I have just been given a new project at work and wanted to focus on it,” Mokalanyane told the Sunday Express yesterday.
“I do not have the time anymore to go to the ground so I asked to be given some time to deal with work issues.”
“There might be some issues with the committee but they never influenced my decision to resign,” he added.
Matlama public relations officer Lesolle Phalatsi refused to comment on the latest crisis to rock the Maseru side.
“I don’t have a comment because the letters were not deliberated by the committee (on Thursday),” Phalatsi said.
“I work with the issues deliberated by the executive committee during its sittings, which I am part of.”
Mahao Matete, the team’s technical adviser, will temporarily head the coaching department until a substantive replacement is named.
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