Johannesburg – Champions League final opponents Al Ahly’s president Mahmoud El Khatib splashes special bonuses on his players, Amakhosi’s top brass on the other hand have been mum about their financial rewards.
Chiefs made history in the year they celebrate their 51st anniversary by qualifying for their maiden African Champions League final to face the Pharaohs of Cairo, Al Ahly.
The Red Eagles of Egypt are coached by former Mamelodi Sundowns tactician Pitso Mosimane, who squared up against his countrymen, Soweto’s Glamour Boys, in the grand finale of the most prestigious African inter-club competition in Casablanca, Morocco, on Saturday night.
After the victory against AS Vita Club of the DRC in the first round, Al Ahly players have received incentives following their 3-0 win over the Congolese away in Kinshasa.
For their heroics, “Bibo”, as club president El Khatib is fondly known, gave double-win bonuses convincingly beating Vita, apparently in recognition of the players’ courageous performance.
This was followed by Mosimane giving the players a five-day rest to help them recuperate.
In the semi-final match, the Pharaohs won 3-0 over Tunisia’s Esperance, and the Al Ahly bosses decided to reward players with a special bonus after the team’s 1-0 first-leg away victory and similarly, the first team had a two-day rest upon arrival in Cairo last month.
But Mosimane is well too familiar with the tradition of rewarding players with bonuses.
At his former club Mamelodi Sundowns, Mosimane’s former boss and club president, now CAF head honcho, mining mogul Patrice Motsepe, constantly and generously rewarded players with bonuses for winning major trophies.
When contacted about the possibility of the dangling of the incentive carrot to players for reaching the final, both Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung and newly appointed sporting director Kaizer Motaung Jr, who were in Casablanca for the final, did not answer their phones or reply to messages sent to them.
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