Coach Bright apologises for outburst after game
Black Leopards coach, Maj David Bright has apologised to Leopards supporters on radio, saying he was emotional after the team's loss on Saturday.
LIMPOPO – Black Leopards coach, Maj David Bright has apologised to Leopards supporters on radio, saying he was emotional after the team’s loss on Saturday and that his comments were made in the heat of the moment.
On Monday, Black Leopards chairperson, David Thidiela , Bright and the team manager, Mongezi Bobe, went on radio to clarify the situation with the people of Limpopo. According to Bright, he would also send a letter of apology for publication to various newspapers.
Coach’s outburst after Black Leopard’s 3-2 loss against Mbombela United on Saturday
On Saturday, a fuming Bright revealed shortly after the game that the team’s 3-2 loss against Mbombela United was caused by coaching interference.
Bright endured vulgar words from angry supporters after the visitors, who were behind by two goals, equalised and scored the winning goal in the 90th minute through Phetolo Sekome’s powerful free-kick outside the box.
Lidoda Duvha supporters could not endure watching their team lose three points that were already in the bag, and they prevented Thidiela from leaving the grounds. Although Thidiela tried to address them, they proceeded to the players’ bus, yelling and threatening to manhandle Bright. When security officers tried to protect Bright, the supporters would have none of this and decided to lie under and around the bus to prevent it from moving.
“If I’m a driver and you tell me how to change gears and how to turn the wheels, I will definitely make an accident. You have to use your common sense. This is football and I will take the blame as the coach, but at the end of the day you will find out that these things are being caused by other people,” said Bright.
“I don’t care whether my job is safe or not, I’m a human being. Even if they fire me, I will see what I have to do. I am making a stand. I can tell everybody what is happening. I’m a very experienced coach and have been in football for a very long time. What is happening here is very unusual,” he said.
“My job is to motivate the team to come back and prepare for AmaZulu and forget about this game because it is water under the bridge. They shouldn’t talk much about it, but we have to sit down together as a technical team with the management to solve these problems.
“If we are going to continue like this, we will lose a lot of games. If you come and tell me to do something that I have not prepared for, it won’t go well if I do it. If you look at the game, we should have taken out the striker, Thembi Nevhulamba, who missed more than five goals and brought another striker in, but some people were telling me to change the gears of the car and also directing me where to turn the wheels. If I’m a driver and you are telling me how to changes gears and where to turn, you can make an accident with me,” he said.
“I’m not going to press a panic button; we should just stand up and fight. If you look at the statistics of this team for the past five seasons, they have started very badly. It is a matter of trying to fix everything and going ahead,” he said.
Angry supporters at the Black Leopards vs Mbombela United on Saturday in Thohoyandou
On Monday, Thidiela condemned the supporters who threatened to manhandle the coach. “Bright has a performance contract with Leopards. He breached the contract by going to the media, and an independent disciplinary committee will handle this matter,” Thidiela said.
