Johannesburg – Newly-appointed Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter will not have his CAF Champions League baptism of fire this weekend as he is still awaiting his work permit.
The 67-year-old English coach was expected to occupy the Amakhosi dugout together with his assistants, Arthur Zwane and Dillon Sheppard, when the African Champions League semi-finalists take Moroccan side Wydad Athletic Club in a crucial away, first-leg clash at the Mohamed V Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco on Saturday night, kick-off is 9pm.
Chiefs announced on its official club website that the team will travel to Morocco on Wednesday.
“Just as in the last two DStv Premiership games of the season, coaches Arthur Zwane and Dillon Sheppard will continue to sit on the bench while newly-appointed coach Stuart Baxter and the club’s administration work on obtaining his work permit,” the club announced.
“Coach Baxter will however travel with the team to the North African country as the team gets ready for the all-important semi-final game against two-time CAF Champions League winners.”
Chiefs were pioneers in African football back in 1993, when they were South Africa’s first representatives in the competition now known as the CAF Champions League.
Back then, Chiefs overcame Extension Gunners of Botswana and Kiyovu Sport of Rwanda, before bowing out in unfortunate circumstances in the second round, losing on away goals to eventual winners Egyptian giants Zamalek.
Chiefs went on to win their first African title in 2001, when they won the African Cup Winners Cup.
Now, they are in unchartered territory for the club after reaching the last four of Africa’s premier club competition for the first time, where they meet Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca in the first leg of the CAF Champions League semi-final this weekend.
Chiefs become just the third South African club to reach the semi-finals of the CAF Champions League, along with Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates, and the opportunity now presents itself for the Amakhosi to carve out a place in history and go in search of a coveted African star of their own.
Chiefs are also only the second South African team, along with cross town rivals Orlando Pirates, to reach the semi-final stage of two different African Club competitions.
Chiefs’ previous African Cup semi-final was a last four clash in the 2001 Cup Winners Cup against Club African that ended in a 3-0 aggregate win, with a 2-0 home win in the first leg followed by a 1-0 triumph in Tunis.
Wydad Casablanca are two times CAF Champions League winners and were also in the semi-finals of the competition last season, where they were defeated by eventual winners Al Ahly.
It will be a tall order for Chiefs against Wydad Casablanca and their coach Faouzi Benzarti, an old campaigner in an African competition, but it is an opportunity for Amakhosi to write their own history in the competition.
Chiefs have won five games in the current African Champions League campaign and one more win will see Amakhosi manage their most number of victories in a CAF Champions League run, having also won five games in 1993.
Having reached a milestone earlier in the campaign of having scored 50 goals in the CAF Champions League, with Bernard Parker’s strike in the 1-0 home win over Wydad in the group stages, Chiefs will have their sights on another goal scoring milestone.
To date, Amakhosi have scored 96 goals in all African club competition games they have played in, reaching a century of goals in the current campaign will go a long way towards getting Chiefs beyond Wydad.
Few expected Chiefs to progress this far in the tournament, but with the first leg of the semi-final taking place in Morocco this weekend the Amakhosi will be hoping to cause a stir on Africa’s northern Atlantic coast and to return home with a positive result.
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