Mokwena – no Champions League at Wydad may be a blessing

Rulani Mokwena insists he has no specific mandate at Wydad Casablanca, with the only real requirement that he creates a sustainable, easy-on-the-eye style of play at the Moroccan giants.

Mokwena is heading into his first season of a three year contract with Wydad, a side rebuilding having dropped well below their own high standards last season, failing to make it out of the Caf Champions League group stages and finishing sixth in the Moroccan top flight.

That sixth-place finish means that they failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2015, while Wydad are also currently listed by Fifa as banned from registering new players because of contract violations.

In terms of the coming season, with the Botola Pro League set to start on August 31, Mokwena says he had not discussed exact targets with the club president Hicham Ait Menna.

“The only thing we have really discussed is the style of play,” Mokwena told the South African Football Journalists Association this week in an interview from Casablanca.

“In my first interaction with the president … he is a big Barcelona fan and he comes across as an incredibly wise man and passionate about football, I love my discussions with him about football already.”

Menna, it seems, is also a big fan of the way Mokwena’s previous club, Mamelodi Sundowns, played their football, probably the main reason Wydad ultimately hired the 37 year-old.

‘I will add five percent more’

“In one of the most important conversations we had, he said to me if I can only give him 20 percent of the way the team played at Sundowns, he will be happy. I said ‘don’t worry I will add five percent more’. So the greatest expectation is trying to create something a bit more sustainable and long-lasting with regard to the personality of the team.”

Mokwena added that not playing in the Champions League may actually help him in his first season with Wydad.

“I think it could be a blessing in disguise,” he said.

“This is a competition where the club is known, a space that is their natural habitat. But I think what it gives us is the possibility to work and train the squad and maybe even to arrive at the Club World Cup with less fatigue.”

Wydad are listed as one of the teams that will play in the expanded 32-team Fifa Club World Cup next year, from June 15 to July 13 in the USA.

“Your squad will have played in one competition less than many teams at the Club World Cup, there could be that type of physiological advantage, and from a technical and tactical perspective more time to work with the team,” added Mokwena.

“That is something I have not had in a very long time, a lot more neutral weeks and preparation time.

“So I look at it as an advantage (but) it (the Champions League) is a competition we have to be part of next season. I know it is very important to the football club.”