Kaizer Chiefs owner Kaizer Motaung has shown his gratitude to the Premier Soccer League and its chairman Irvin Khoza for rewarding him with an R2 million gift for his contribution in Mzansi football.
At the National Soccer League (NSL) Quadrennial General Meeting and Executive Committee election held in Johannesburg on Wednesday, PSL chairman Irvin Khoza, who retained his seat, said they had decided to hand Motaung the gift to spoil himself after turning 80 last month.
Motaung celebrated his 80th birthday on October 16 and having been a founding member of the NSL as well as Kaizer Chiefs, the country’s most popular club, the PSL top brass so it fit to reward him for his effort to develop the game in the country.
The former striker stated he has come a long way with the Orlando Pirates chairman Khoza and conceded it has not been a walk in the path trying to improve the beautiful game.
The music made it worse – Motaung
“Indeed, it was emotional because this had been an interesting journey. It's been a long journey, and both of us have been on this journey, trying to maneuver and see how best we can improve football in this country,” the veteran administrator stated.
“So, the music [Frank Sinatra's song ‘I'll Do It My Way' that played when Khoza honoured him] as well, made it even worse because I just became nostalgic about some of the things we went through on this journey.
“We’ve come a very long way, and when we put this league together, we worked together as a team,” Motaung continued.”
Our journey with Khoza has been exciting
Motaung further shared what is common between him and Khoza, and the factor that made them have a major input to Mzansi football.
“Even when he [Khoza] was not the chairman of Pirates, at the time, he was with us whenever we were fighting with Sanfa [the SA National Football Association, which is the SA Football Association’s forebear]. We had to leave Sanfa because they wanted to run both amateur and professional football.
“Our journey with the chair has been exciting and eye-opening because we went through a lot. It’s time for us to put something together. We can write our history and not wait for somebody to come and write it for us. We need to write history in terms of where we come from because this has been our life through and through,” Motaung concluded.
