WE’RE NOT BULLYING ANYONE - ‘BEYOND 2000’

MBABANE – Capital city giants Mbabane Swallows General Manager (GM) Sandile ‘Beyond 2000’ Zwane has refuted claims made by National First Division side Ezulwini United.

The side that was formerly known as Tinyosi came out guns blazing this past week, accusing Swallows of bullying them by poaching their Head Coach Caleb Ngwenya. “Following internal discussions, it has come to our attention that Mbabane Swallows Football Club has been poaching our first team Head Coach, Caleb Ngwenya. We take offence to this undermining behaviour, as flattering as it may be since it shows that they admire our club. ‘‘We feel undermined and downright disrespected by Swallows, a club that should be led by people who understand football rules and regulations, especially because they claim to be a big team. We cannot speak directly to someone contracted to another club, not a player nor a coach, which shows respect and professionalism. We expect that a big club should afford other clubs the same respect and professional courtesy, not to bully them,” reads the statement from Ezulwini United Communications team in part.

accusing

‘Beyond 2000’ has since come out to deny the accusations made by Ezulwini United as not true. “What Ezulwini United is accusing the club of is not true. At Mbabane Swallows Football Club we believe in following all protocols and all the correct channels when we are interested in a coach or any player. We always talk to the team that a person is attached to first before we can talk to the individual and we will never talk to any individual without having received permission from his club first,” he said. He explained that Mbabane Swallows President Archbishop Bheki Lukhele did not want to associate himself with controversy, so they would never disrespect other teams as that was against his values.

“The club president has always maintained that we must make friends out of football and we will never go against his word and start disrespecting other teams because we think we are bigger. The country is too small; we wouldn’t want enmity between ourselves and the teams. We would never bully a team in the country. We believe that we are all cousins and if Ezulwini United or another team feels we bullied them or whatsoever, we humbly apologise,” Beyond 2000 said. The soft spoken GM also mentioned that they would announce a new coach soon.

identified

“We have identified the new coach and we are just finalising the finer logistics with his employers. The coming coach will add to the current technical team that we have as he is coming with his own technical members too. We are patiently waiting for the club president to give the next instructions and then we will announce the coach,” he said. Swallows are currently under the tutelage of Musa Manyatsi who has had a decent start in the current campaign, currently siting on position six on the MTN Premiership standings, three points behind current log leaders Young Buffaloes. He led the team to position three alongside Siyabonga Bhembe. It remains to be seen what will happen to Bhembe, with the new coach said to be coming with his own technical team.

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