The 2024/25 season has barely started, yet already three coaches in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) have parted ways with their clubs. The ink on their contracts was still getting dry when, lo and behold, they still could not coach even for one match in the newly launched Betway Premiership.
German Peter Hyballa and Vusumuzi “Kanu” Vilakazi were shown the door while Dylan Kerr resigned in a huff – all this is happening in the backdrop of the off-season where other coaches are finalising preparations and strategies for the new season.
Kerr recently stepped down from his role as Marumo Gallants coach before the season even started. And Dan “Dance” Malesela has, for the umpteenth time, filled the void left by Kerr.
The randy Hyballa, who was unveiled amid huge excitement as the new sheriff in town for Sekhukhune United in July, has left the club after a sex scandal where he was filmed doing bedroom aerobics at a brothel in Jozi. The German never got to coach a single match in Mzansi.
Vilakazi was caught in the middle as to who was calling the shots between the club bosses and the sponsors who pump in millions of rands into the club. “Kanu”, as he was known in his playing days for Golden Arrows, had a short fuse when an overzealous reporter asked him about his future with Richards Bay FC. “I don’t deal with sponsors, I deal with the bosses,” exclaimed a livid Vilakazi at a Safa coaching course in Germiston, Ekurhuleni two months ago. And before he knew it, Vilakazi was yanked out of the club faster than you can say Kanu.
Mamelodi Sundowns also fired PSL Coach of the Season, Rulani Mokwena. It did not matter if the man had won the African Football League, which carried a wholesome R75-million and also the DStv Premiership title, meaning that he brought in a cool R90-million into the already-brimming coffers of the club.
And mind you, Masandawana also lost one match out of 30 in their seasonal romp to the domestic league championship.
This is the absurdness and the ludicrousness of the PSL. Having covered the league since the turn of the millennium, this year ranks as one of the worst when it comes to the coaching merry-go-round for me.
Chance-takers such as Joel Masutha and French shyster Jean-Yves Kerjean know that Mzansi club bosses such as David Thidiela can behave like Russian Bear Vodka on an empty stomach. In 2005, Kerjean lasted just under a month, one match in charge, before he was sent packing.
In 2009, Leopards changed four coaches in four months. They had Vladislav Heric, then appointed Innocent Mayoyo and also had Masutha and Romanian Mario Marinica in those four months.
In 2018, the same Malesela was fired by trigger-happy Chippa United boss Siviwe “Chippa” Mpengesi three games into the new season.
“I have been through this kind of process at Chippa before‚ and I would not be surprised if it was true‚” Malesela said when reporters had the scoop that his neck was in the noose.
He later said that it was an “embarrassment for him and his family”.
The likes of Malesela and Harris “TV4” Choeu have previously complained that PSL bosses do not have respect for coaches – but the same coaches keep on taking the jobs after one of their own is unfairly shown the red card by the club owners. The disdain and the treatment are a cause for concern and until the coaches start taking themselves seriously, no one will.
