Kaizer Chiefs will deal with Ntwari incident internally, says Kaze

Kaizer Chiefs interim co-coach Cedric Kaze says the club will address the issue of goalkeeper Fiacre Ntwari in private after he refused to come off the field during their Carling Knockout first round defeat to Stellenbosch FC on Sunday.

Chiefs were planning to bring in Bruce Bvuma at the end of extra time to face the penalty shoot-out, but a defiant Ntwari refused to leave the Cape Town Stadium pitch.

The Rwanda international faced the penalties and went on to save the first one from Andre de Jong to give Amakhosi an advantage. However, Tashreeq Morris and Dillan Solomons missed for Chiefs to bow out at the first hurdle.

Kaze explained why Ntwari refused to be substituted.

“I believe in those kinds of situations, it’s something we’re going to handle internally,” the coach said.

“He felt comfortable to go to the penalties and help the team. It came from a good intention, maybe the way [he behaved] wasn’t as good as it should be.

“But it’s something we’re going to handle internally.”

The defeat has put the future of Kaze and co-caretaker coach Kalil Ben Youssef in serious doubt as the club also struggles in the Betway Premiership amid the suspension of head coach Nasreddine Nabi.

Kaze said they remain the coaches until they are told otherwise and the pair are welcoming the international break to work on certain things.

“I believe that’s a question that should be directed to the management and at this time we are the coaches of Kaizer Chiefs and until further notice or [until] something else is decided by the management. I’m sure they will let everyone know.

“I believe it is a break that is welcomed because the past few weeks we’ve played six games, travelling to Angola [in the Confederation Cup] and coming back. Every match has its own pressure and we never had time to work on everything that we could have wanted to work on.

“But now we will have time to settle ourselves and work on things and get better combinations going forward to the next matches.”

Kaze said Chiefs will work on their finishing during the break as they are not scoring enough goals. The last time Amakhosi scored two goals was when they beat Stellenbosch 2-0 in the Betway Premiership on August 10.

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