Bright shuns local clubs

THATO KALA
Correspondent | Thursday March 4, 2010 00:00

 

The former Mogoditshane Fighters and Township Rollers' coach is presently jobless after the First Division club was liquidated on Tuesday.  But he says he cannot return home to coach because local clubs are unprofessional.

'The problem is that teams (in Botswana) are unprofessional, so for somebody like me who is coming from a professional set up, it will be difficult. I can teach them one or two things having been exposed to professional teams, but I cannot commit myself to signing a contract,' Bright told Mmegi Sport yesterday.

After joining Bay United, Bright recruited Botswana players Pontsho Moloi and Noah Maposa from Mochudi Centre Chiefs at the beginning of the season. The two players terminated their contracts with Bay United to rejoin former Chiefs but Bright believes it is a step backward. 'It is not that Bay is not happy about the move they made since we did not qualify for the PSL. We couldn't keep them because they were on loan and Centre Chiefs were pressuring us, that is why we had to release them. 

'But for them to get out of a professional set-up and go to an amateurish league was not a good move. They should have waited here (in South Africa) because other teams would have approached them. Now it means they have to start from scratch,' he said.

Bright told a South African paper yesterday that he was disappointed about not getting paid and not being informed that the club would cease operations. However, he said the club has cleared the outstanding monies it owed him.

He added that his stay at the former Premiership side was good despite the fact that he failed to help them bounce back to topflight football. He blames lack of goals for the club's failure to win the sole ticket to the promotional play-offs.

'We were playing well but we had a scoring problem. If we could have won the last two games, we could be talking a different story,' he said.

When Bright joined Bay United, he promised to take the club to the Premier League within one season instead of the two the management had set. 'When you write an exam you don't aim to fail, you say I'm writing to pass but if you fail, it will be very unfortunate.' Umlilo owner, Sipho Pityana told the club's website that continuing to operate the club each month, with growing uncertainty about its income, was becoming harmful to the integrity of his company.

The club was being subsidised by Pityana's company, Izingwe Holdings, after its sponsors VWSA and Puma withdrew following its demotion from the PSL.