When it’s Benni nobody talks: Chippa coach Mammila upset at criticisms

Football administrator-turned-Chippa United coach Morgan Mammila is irritated at the constant questions about his lack of coaching qualifications and experience and believes they are personal attacks on him because of his unorthodox style.

Mammila went as far as to say Benni McCarthy — Bafana Bafana's all-time top scorer and a Uefa Champions League-winner with FC Porto — did not receive the same treatment when he was hired at Cape Town City and AmaZulu with little experience. McCarthy, one of South Africa's highest qualified coaches, with a Uefa Pro Licence, is now Manchester United's first team forwards coach.    

Mammila, who was introduced to South African football as a CEO of Baroka FC about a decade ago, will start the new DStv Premiership campaign this weekend in his second stint as Chippa head coach.

He returns to the Chili Boys, the club that gave him his big break as a head coach after sacking Daine Klate in October last year, having at one stage vowed never to coach at top-flight level again.

Speaking during the 2023-24 DStv Premiership season launch, Mammila said he was perplexed at so many questions about his credentials, and claimed other coaches in a similar position did not receive the same treatment.

“You know when you go to secondary school from primary school, you find these guys that have repeated all the standards [grades]?” Mammila said.

“They repeat standard six, standard seven and standard eight; they will tell you how difficult science is [because] they have been there.

“Remember, we don’t need to be like them where we have to be assistants for 10 years or five years. We were born differently. I was an assistant for two months [to Klate an Kurt Lentjies at Chippa] and from there I was the head coach.” 

Chippa’s decision to appoint their former CEO as head coach met with criticism, partly because Mammila only had a Caf D-licence qualification at the time. He has since obtained his C-licence. 

He had some initially promising results, but by February those had soured and trigger-happy United chair Chippa Mpengesi sacked the coach. Mammila served as a technical adviser to Swallows FC in the latter part of last season.

Mammila drew a bizarre comparison with McCarthy's situation.    

“It’s not [just] me [who lacks experience] — Benni came to South Africa [and] because he is Benni, nobody talks about this thing,” Mammila said.

“Because it’s Morgan now they are talking about qualifications. And when you check, let’s be honest, a lot of coaches don’t have qualifications, but it was only a personal attack on me. I don’t know why, but I took it positively because look where I am now.”

Despite his glittering playing career, McCarthy spent time in the trenches learning as a coach with a stints as assistant manager at Sint-Truiden of Belgium, where he spent a year before joining City in 2017.

Mammila pointed that some PSL clubs have had to play in Caf interclub competitions without their head coaches on the bench due to lack of qualifications.

“When you look at other teams, I can’t mention names, they [those clubs' coaches] have the same qualifications as me,” Mammila said.

“When you look at teams playing in the Confederation Cup and Champions League, there are coaches who don’t sit on the bench. Why? Because they don’t have qualifications.

“But you guys [the media] don’t talk [about them]. You only wait for me and you start talking. But to be honest, I’m not representing myself, I’m representing a black child out there that has never played football.

“I’m telling them it’s possible, you can be a head coach without playing football even if you are a rural boy.”

Chippa kick off their season travelling to meet Kaizer Chiefs in their Premiership clash at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Sunday (3pm).

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