Chiefs withdraw players from Bafana

Johannesburg – PSL champions Kaizer Chiefs have withdrawn the six players who were selected to represent Bafana Bafana at next months Chan tournament on home soil.According to the club’s official website, football manager Bobby Motaung revealed that the reason for the club’s decision not to release their players was based on the fact that the Chan tournament is not a Fifa-sanctioned event and that they are not obliged to release their players.

“We have expressed ourselves to Safa well in advance,” said Motaung.  “Chiefs are scheduled to play in a PSL league fixture against Mamelodi Sundowns on January 23 2014.  We have to prepare for the Caf Championship as well.”

Chiefs were initially supposed to play Sundowns on November 23, but this date clashed with the semi-finals of the Telkom Knockout and was subsequently moved to December 11.

However, the fixture had to once again be rescheduled after the passing away of former President Nelson Mandela on December 5, thus pushing the match to January 28 2014.

The reason for the latest fixture shift is that Safa and the PSL reached an agreement to reschedule all PSL fixtures in January to accommodate the Chan tournament without impacting on the squads of PSL clubs, who may have players on national duty.

Part of the compromise was to have Chiefs and Sundowns players selected for Bafana return to their respective clubs to honour the fixture.

Coach Stuart Baxter already revealed after their PSL match against Amazulu on Sunday that Chiefs won’t be releasing their players for Chan.

Meanwhile, four other Premiership fixtures, scheduled during the Chan tournament, have remained unchanged and would go ahead as planned.

Orlando Pirates were scheduled to play SuperSport United on January 18, just seven days after the start of Chan, before tackling AmaZulu away from home, also on January 23.

As a result Igesund did not name any Pirates players in his team after a compromise was reached between Safa and the PSL on which players to release for the tournament. – Supersport.