Gallants keen to help Maleka upgrade coaching badges

Marumo Gallants are said to have taken a decision that they will support Mpho Maleka to upgrade his coaching badges until he is able to sit in the dugout for big tournaments as well.

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Maleka and David Mathebula have been credited with keeping the engine room running at the Limpopo-based side but because they do not have proper coaching qualifications they have had to act as assistants.

The club had to make a hurried appointment of Raymond Mdaka for their Caf Confederation Cup preliminary match against AS Vita Club last Friday.

“He was there on paper just to keep with the requirements of the competition but the coach is really Mpho Maleka. He has done a wonderful job and has the respect of the players. The club has committed to do everything it can to help him get proper qualifications,” said a source.

Meanwhile, Gallants management will apparently not be that bothered if they get knocked out by AS Vita, due to the cost of playing in the Caf Confederation Cup group stages.

Gallants won 2-1 in the first leg of their qualifier at home, but are supposedly not too keen to move ahead given their standing in the DStv Premiership.

“It is great that the team is rubbing shoulders with the best on the continent but the reality is that we are a small and new side in the top-flight. We are not doing well and if we enter the space of the group stages, it will be very taxing in terms of travelling and the expense involved. We have seen how some of our counterparts have struggled to balance the league with African football.

“We don’t want to fall down that slippery slope,” said a source at the club.