La Passe head coach James Barra has revealed his side isn’t earning salaries from football while revealing his players needed to take leave from work to face Mamelodi Sundowns
The Seychelles champions advanced to the second preliminary round of the qualification ahead of Comoros side Volcan but were on the wrong end of a thrashing at Loftus Versveld on Sunday afternoon.
In what was considered an ‘away’ fixture due to their country not holding stadiums that meet the Confederation of African Football (CAF) requirements, Barra went on to open up on the massive gulf in the stature of the two sides.
“The game went quite well, we knew it was going to be difficult but we tried to do our best,” Barra said about the 7-0 thumping before opening up about their side being an amateur football team.
“From Monday to Friday in the afternoon we train [for an hour or two] and we’re not so many coaches there, we don’t have physical trainers, we don’t have goalkeeper coaches, we’re a few of us. We try to do everything by ourselves. The players were released from work to come to South Africa.”
“They do different jobs, there’s cooks, carpenters, masons, firefighters – a few jobs, as for me, I’m a physical education teacher at a secondary school and I have a CAF A License. We get salaries from our jobs and from the club we get allowances, no salaries.”
It’s not the first time Barra was on the losing end of Masadawana but he admits he’s paying his school fees by facing teams of the strength of the 2016 African champions and competing amongst Africa’s elite at club and national team level.
“For me, it’s the second time playing Sundowns, I was here in 2019 with Côte d’Or, we lost the first match 11-1, so for me it’s the second time and I’ve learnt a lot, I was the assistant coach of the national team from 2017 to 2019, so I’ve gained a lot of experience.”
