Steve Barker takes swipe at Kaizer Chiefs over Fiacre Ntwari saga

Stellenbosch FC coach Steve Barker has weighed in on the surprising incident involving Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Fiacre Ntwari during their Carling Knockout match last Sunday.

During the final minutes of the match, which saw Stellies win on post-match penalties, Chiefs coaches attempted to make a goalkeeping change by taking off Ntwari for Bruce Bvuma just before the shootouts.

The idea was to have Bvuma in goal for the penalties but Ntwari refused to come off, an act of defiance that left fans and observers stunned.

What did Barker say about the Ntwari saga?

Ntwari has since been criticised for defying his coaches with some calling on Chiefs to banish him completely from the squad while others have claimed the incident demonstrated that assistant coaches Cedric Kaze and Khalil Ben Youssef have no control over the players.

Speaking over the issue, Barker seemed to demonstrate that there is player power at play at Chiefs, comparing the situation to his own club.

“A difficult question. I can’t really answer because I don’t think a player from our club would do that,” Barker said when asked about Ntwari’s behaviour, as quoted by iDiski Times.

Ntwari’s behaviour continues to draw sharp reactions but the Rwandan goalkeeper has been defended by his national team coach.

Rwanda goalkeeper received rare defence

“The first thing I did was speak with the goalkeeper coach (Ilyes Mzoughi) because I was following the game closely,” said Rwanda coach Adel Amrouche as quoted by Soccer Laduma.

“I also spoke with Fiacre, as I always do before and after his matches. He didn’t do it out of disrespect – not towards the coach or anyone. He was simply in his game at that moment. 

“When you’re a footballer, you have that feeling inside you. He was in that zone. You could see it from the start – he was focused and kept a clean sheet and had a good game overall. He went on to save the first penalty. That’s very important in football; it gives the team spirit and confidence,” he added.

Kaze promised to deal with the matter internally and it remains to be seen how the club will handle Ntwari going forward.