EX-ZEBRAS’ PETER BUTLER WANTED FOR SIHLANGU

MBABANE – Ex-West Ham United player and former Botswana’s Zebras coach Peter Butler is favourite to land the vacant Eswatini national team Sihlangu coaching post.

It has emerged that the Eswatini Football Association (EFA), through its Executive Committee, has sanctioned the Technical Committee to shortlist a few coaches they find fit for the job, but ensure they include Butler on the list.

“The Technical Committee was told after a lengthy debate about hiring and not hiring of the new coach for the senior nation team, that they must get Peter Butler, who is well-known in Botswana as he coached the Zebras,” said an impeccable source within the EFA Executive Committee.

The source said they held a meeting last week, whereby some members argued that there was no money to pay the coach as ‘government has not given us money for seven months’ to date. However, others, especially members of the Technical Committee, are said to have justifiably explained that the nation could not go on like this under the guise that there were no funds to pay the coach.

Shortlist

“They must get Butler, also go on to shortlist him along with Kosta Papic and one Italian coach, who also applied and seemingly is not even interested in cash but developing the country’s football and his coaching philosophy,” said the source.

The Italian coach’s name is Vincenzo Alberto Annese, who is currently based in Indonesia as coach with a UEFA PRO Licence and was born in 1984. He has also worked in Ghana Premier League with Bechem United in 2016/2017, Palestine Premier League, and Armenian National Under-19 among others.

University lecturer

He is also a physical education university lecturer and ex-football player in Italy’s Serie A. He has worked with renowned stars like Simeone Inzaghi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, among other players in the world.

Meanwhile, Butler also coached ABSA Premiership outfit Platinum Stars in 2017 but did not stay for long as he was forced to resign, while as Zebras coach, he quit following pressure for results with the Botswana Football Association, saying the English-man was basically good for development as he always experimented with young and new talent blended with the old.

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