The teams affiliated with the Motsepe Foundation Championship League played their last league matches for the 2022/23 soccer season on Sunday. For many of the teams the season was a long and difficult one.
The chairman of Venda Football Academy (VFA), Mr Itani Munzhelele, said the season had been the most difficult one to date for his club. VFA finished their league programme in the 11th position on the log standings with 38 points.
The team started the season with Mr Michael Loftman as head coach. The team's performance in their first six matches was below par. That prompted the management of the team to terminate Mr Loftman's contract. The former head coach of Uthongathi FC, Mr Simo Dladla, then took over as the new mentor of the team. Mr Dladla's presence seemingly did not add any value to the team as the Thohoyandou side continued to donate significant league points to their opponents at home and away.
Realising that the future of the team was looking bleak under the guidance of Mr Dladla, the management then decided to terminate his contract, citing professional misconduct as their reason for parting ways with him.
As one of many ways to try and turn the team's fortunes around, VFA appointed the former head coach of Black Leopards, Mr Joel Masutha, to the position of the head coach of the team about three months ago. Mr Macbeth Sibaya was his assistant. At that stage, the team was lying in the second-last position on the log standings. The team's performance improved dramatically under the guidance of Mr Masutha.
Mr Munzhelele said that they had done everything within their power to get the team promoted to the DStv Premiership Division this season, but that was not to be. Instead, the team was battling to move out of the danger zone for the better part of the season. He reckoned that they would try and use the experiences of the past season to prepare better for the new season.