Chiefs coach fumes at ‘unfair’ treatment – ‘They changed it for Pirates last season’

Kaizer Chiefs coach Khalil Ben Youssef has questioned why his team is playing so many matches when some of their opponents enjoy a kind fixture lineup.

Chiefs have played six games in the last three weeks, and that run includes three in the CAF Confederation Cup, two in the league and one Nedbank Cup.

The Glamour Boys have won five and lost one, Wednesday’s Nedbank Cup Round of 32 defeat to Stellenbosch FC, but after a hard-fought 2-1 win against Al Masry on Sunday, Ben Youssef let out his frustration.

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“We played five or four games away now, we’re in a situation, we play now we fly back tomorrow, we prepare in between games with no training sessions, for two weeks we have not had a training session,” said Ben Youssef as quoted by iDiski Times. “We play, tomorrow it’s rest or recovery, then MD-1 you can do nothing, then game.”

Chiefs coach unhappy with fixture planers

The Tunisian coach is wondering why his team has not been allowed to spread out their fixtures like Orlando Pirates when they played in the CAF Champions League last season.

“When you prepare fixtures you have to think about the players, the team, as Chiefs we’re playing this competition and all our league games, I remember last season they [Orlando Pirates] played CAF games, they changed the fixtures and played their last five games in May,” he went on.

“We’re playing in CAF and playing almost all the games, the opposition, they don’t play anything and have two or three games before us to be in the same amount of games. We’re representing the country, so we have to think about the team, how we manage the game.”

Chiefs’ run of fixtures does not end soon as they still have four matches before the end of February one of them being a Confederation Cup game away to Zamalek which will be played in Cairo before finishing the month with the Soweto Derby.

Many matches hurting Amakhosi players

Ben Youssef wonders how Chiefs are expected to fly South Africa’s flag when the fixture planners are not giving them a breather.

“Sometimes we have to find solutions. We have two months without competition and then come back and play every three days a game, how do you deal with that? Playing away games, travelling, load, we’re at big risk of injuring players,” he added.

“So for that we have to make rotations. And with this rotation we lost Miguel, because of too many games, today we have Aden, three yellow cards, then we playing Zamalek in Egypt to try and be qualified, we have Zitha and Given at centre-back.

Were Pirates favoured last season?

“It’s no excuses but reality, if you want to improve, help you need to help your team also, we’re Kaizer Chiefs, but we’re representing South Africa… what am I asking? We did this last season, some teams played the last, five, six games in May.

“This season we played 15 games, another team, I don’t want to say names have played 15 games and they don’t play [in CAF]. If we represent Kaizer Chiefs – we represent Kaizer Chiefs, but when we represent South Africa, we represent South Africa.

“In every country I have worked in, when you play CAF games, you’re allowed to change the fixtures, see how many games they have played [Al Masry].”