Prince of Wales Sports ground is diplorable'
MBABANE – Much travelled former South Africa’s Black Leopards coach, Walter ‘Mr Fitness’ Rautman has described the training pitch used by Mbabane Swallows ahead of their CAF Champions league clash against SuperSport United as ‘deplorable’.
In his first training conducted at Prince of Wales Sports ground after arriving in the country yesterday, Rautman said it was tragic that the ‘Beautiful Birds’ use the area next to the pitch when their opponents, SuperSport United have the best facilities.
“I feel for the players having to train on such a deplorable pitch. Why are they not using the same pitch they will play SuperSport United in? These are the Swazi champions and they deserve to be treated as such,” he said.
Rautaman said he doesn’t understand why Swallows is not allowed to use the Prince of Wales Sports ground pitch instead of using the area next to the pitch.
“To play in the Champions league is not a joke, you need to be mentally prepared, be motivated and how can the players be motivated training in such a facility. This is like South Africa 40 years ago,” he added.
In spite of the prevailing conditions, Rautman was still confident with the four weeks he has to drill the team, the ‘Birds’ can overcome the Premier Soccer League (PSL) champions.
“This situation reminds me when I coached African Wanderers some years ago but still managed to beat millionaires like Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Not one PSL coach would come to coach here but I am here and I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t want to beat SuperSport,” he said with a heartily laughter.