Tapera: A victim of club owners’ interference
By Raymond Jaravaza
Barely six months after being fired for ‘insubordination’ at South African National First Division club – Black Leopards – coach Jairos Tapera has again fallen victim to the wrath of another club owner.
Across the Limpopo River, Tapera was shown the door at Black Leopards in November 2016. His crime was that of refusing to select certain players at the instruction of club owner David Thidiela.
“Coaches don’t have space to work. David Thidiela is the head coach, chairman, team manager, prophet and inyanga for the team.
“He tells you who to play because it’s his team,” Tapera told B-Metro Sport in the aftermath of his exit from Black Leopards.
Fast forward to last week, Tapera finds himself in a strikingly similar predicament.
Yadah FC owner and technical director Prophet Walter Magaya seems not to believe in the technical astuteness of a coach.
In Magaya’s world football results are determined by prophetic visions that he sees before Yadah FC play a match and the coach must follow his instructions to the tee.
Magaya reportedly instructed Tapera to field certain players in the team’s 0-1 defeat to Dynamos but the coach defied the orders.
The former national Under-20 mentor is said to have again defied the man of God’s instructions when Yadah FC was held 1-1 by Chapungu.
And that was the final straw.
The entire technical team was suspended leading to the side travelling to Bulawayo without coaches and subsequently receiving a 7-2 hammering at the hands of struggling Bantu Rovers.
Former Mighty Warriors captain and coach Rosemary Mugadza has reportedly been roped in to take over from Tapera.
“I’m at home waiting for the club management to make a final decision on whether we continue with the team or not,” said Tapera.
If he is fired, only time will tell if the same axe will also not fall on Mugadza. B-Metro
