A devastated Cape Town Spurs CEO Alexi Efstathiou has come out and reacted to the cryptic comments by Pretoria Callies head coach Kwanele Kopo, saying the coach hinted at some suspicious behaviour of his own players.
After a dramatic last day of the Motsepe Foundation Championship Polokwane City clinched the title and gained automatic promotion, overtaking Cape Town Spurs and Casric Stars on the log following a 4-0 win over Pretoria Callies.
The head coach of Callies, Kwanele Kopo himself seemed surprised with his side’s uncharacteristic performance, questioning their attitude at half-time, and making many neutrals question whether sinister behaviour from his players was at play.
“The worst I’ve seen of Callies in 18 months, I’m really guthed. I don’t know whether to apologise or what,” he told SuperSport TV at half-time.
“The implications of the behaviour of certain players’… Poor first half, one has to go back and reflect. It was a very disappointing first half. I don’t want to implicate people in things…
“But yeah, for the first time I see a first half like this from a team I coach when we go 4-0 down.
“Even at half-time I never said anything I just made substitutions and said if it’s written on the wall it’s written on the wall.
“Lets go and play and then we deal what we have to deal with, we played every ball backwards, we looked to be so hesitant, we made very poor errors, even the first goal, the positioning of the goalkeeper, we made very bad errors which make one think [of match-fixing] but you give them the benefit of the doubt.”
A devastated Efstathiou, whose side will now head into the playoffs, shared his thoughts with iDiski Times on the comments from Kopo.
While stating Spurs’ future had been in their own hands, he admitted that hearing the coach’s comments raised doubts even more.
“I think with all teams, the coach knows his players, that’s his job to know the players’ strength and weaknesses. He obviously saw something within his players that bothered him,” Efstathiou told iDiski Times.
“Of course, he can’t come out and say what he thinks happened, but between the lines, he’s telling what happened. And in terms of where we are with our football, it’s not impossible.”
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Spurs drew 1-1 at Athlone against the University of Pretoria and had they won, they would have been promoted, not Polokwane City. Instead, they will now head into the playoffs with third-placed Casric, who drew 2-2 with All Stars, and the 15th-placed DStv Premiership team.
