‘Coach Nabi is here at the village’: Kaizer Chiefs boss Jessica Motaung

Coach Nasreddine Nabi is at the Kaizer Chiefs Village in Naturena and has taken charge of the start to the team’s preseason preparations, the club’s marketing and commercial director Jessica Motaung said on Thursday.

Motaung gave what seemed a fairly non-committal response when pressed on the future of the coach after he ended Chiefs’ 10-year trophy drought in 2024-2025 but had an otherwise poor first season, with some reports he would be fired at the end of the campaign.

She said reviews are still being done and discussions held on the way forward in the postmortems of a season where Chiefs, after Nabi’s arrival with a strong technical staff, ended ninth in the Betway Premiership, one better than their worst 10th in 2023-2024.

Chiefs, whose players started to come back from their breaks for medicals on Monday, go on a preseason tour of the Netherlands from July 4 to 19. Motaung was asked if Nabi will be on that tour.

“Coach Nabi is here at the village and we’ll make sure he’s in the Netherlands,” she said.

“But the reality is we are looking at the entire process. When we come back there are still reviews of things that need to be done.

“But the coach is here and we’re looking at the players and making sure we prepare them to go onto the pitch and do the work they need to do.”

Motaung was asked if, in the 2024-2025 postseason reviews, there were discussions with the coach on whether he would continue and if there were any ongoing talks on that.

“For me, the coach is here doing his work. I think we need to allow the processes to unfold internally.

“There were reviews done and there are discussions now on where we are going as a team and where we want to take things.

“Any announcements, guys, allow us to do those. I see people don’t want to wait for things,” Motaung said with a chuckle.

“But certainly, the team is here, they’re preparing and that’s the most important thing.”

She was asked if reports that Nabi would be fired at the end of last season had any effect on the team’s start to their preparations for 2025-2026.

Motaung responded that “there’s always speculation” and asked for patience on the announcement of signings.

“We have to do our job and that’s the most important thing. We’ll continue doing our job and whatever we have to announce, we’ll announce.

“I’m asking our supporters to also be patient. I know other clubs are announcing their new players, but allow us to take the time to make sure we have dotted the Is and crossed the Ts and we will make announcements.

“Allow the information to flow from the team and trust the work is taking place behind the scenes.”

Motaung was asked if any new signings will travel to the Netherlands.

“The team is still busy with that — we still have another week to go, but certainly there is a lot of work being done.

“I am aware of players who are signing, so once that’s sorted out, if they are ready to travel to the Netherlands they will.”

Chiefs will be based in Apeldoorn, about 80km from Amsterdam, for their preseason camp.

They play friendly games against SBV Vitesse Arnhem (July 8), FC Utrecht (July 11), NEC Nijmegen (July 12), PEC Zwolle (July 15) and FC Twente (July 16).

Motaung was speaking at the launch of the 2025 Toyota Cup, with Ghana's Asante Kotoke revealed as this year's opponents in the preseason match that will be staged at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on July 26.