CHANNELLING RESOURCES TOWARDS LEAGUE

The new season has come and I wish to take this opportunity to welcome all followers of football in Swaziland to the Mbabane Highlanders weekly column.

First of all, let me apologise for the absence of this column over the last few weeks, this was caused by changes in the Management Committee (MC) which are taking place. Rest assured the column will be appearing regularly from now on.

I have been tasked by the Managing Director (MD), Bheki ‘Rubber’ Simelane to keep the supporters updated until the appointments of the new MC have been finalised.
This has been an extremely hectic off season for the team and the director and MC have been working tirelessly to prepare the team for the new season. Once again, change has come to Mbabane Highlanders and may I request that all supporters join me in welcoming our new coach Mr Rogerio Mariani.

The coach has been appointed after a long and rigorous interview and assessment process by the MD, ‘Rubber’ Simelane. The decision to appoint the coach was taken in line with the teams plan for the coming season. We have stated on numerous occasions that the giant of Swazi football, Mbabane Highlanders, has awakened and we are now ready to assume our position at the summit of Swazi football.

When unveiling the new coach, Simelane stated that we are not in the Premier League to make up the numbers but we are going to mount a serious challenge on the title this season!! It would be very amiss of us not to recognise the invaluable hard work of our former coach Basil Pietersen. Basil achieved the mandate of getting the team promoted within one season and we are very grateful for his contribution to Mbabane Highlanders.

New Signings

The transfer window is now officially opened and the new coach has taken up the reigns. This means that the coach together with our Technical director and our Chief Scout will be working overtime to identify and sign players who will make the team competitive this season.
We can confirm that we have already signed Vusi Madinane and Baimba Kamara. All other signings will be announced in due course and we will publish the final player list once it is finalised.

New Kit

A sneak preview of the new kit for the 2014/2015 season was given to the press last weekend by our PRO, Sifiso Magagula. The major change is that Hyundai Swaziland is now the title sponsor and their logo features prominently on the front of the kit. BPL Telecommunications and Samsung Digital PABX are still major sponsors and will appear on the kit as well.  The replicas will be available for sale this coming week and we will advise on details of pricing and availability in the media.

These are not the only new items that will be available. The MC has been working hard to design the new promotional merchandise for the 2014/2015 season. As we are now back in the Premier League we have decided to step up our game with regard to team merchandise so supporters will see new material available in the next couple of weeks.

Swazi Telecom
Charity Cup

There has been much speculation following the non-qualification of Mbabane Highlanders for the 2014 Swazi Telecom Charity Cup and I want to put all the speculation to rest once and for all. The Swazi Telecom Charity Cup is a tournament where teams qualify based on accumulating votes from their supporters. In recent times, teams have taken it upon themselves to fund voting in order to qualify for the tournament.
As Mbabane Highlanders, we strive to  work within our five-year strategic plan and the constraints of our budget. We had a difficult decision to make, either use the available resources to sign quality players to beef up the squad, or use those resources to vote in order to qualify for the tournament. As our director pointed out when appointing the coach, our strategic focus area is the league and we will do all in our power to be competitive in the league or to even win the league.  Thus, the decision was an obvious one on our part as we are focusing our resources on the league! We wish to thank our loyal supporters who voted for the team during the voting exercise. We also wish to congratulate the teams that have qualified for the tournament.
Finally we must recognise the sponsor, Swazi Telecom, for once again sponsoring the season-opener. As a team we wish to laud Swazi Telecom for the initiatives that coincide with the Charity Cup.
Lives of the less privileged are being changed every week through the Charity Cup.

Untill next week………..GWAZA NKUNZI

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