I will awaken sleeping giant – Petersen

MBABANE – As exclusively reported in the last edition of the Swazi News, Mbabane Highlanders yesterday unveiled South African-born Basil Petersen as the new coach.

He was unveiled by the club’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Bheki ‘Rubber’ Simelane at the BPL Communications conference room yesterday afternoon. He will be in charge of the black and white ensemble for a season.
“I want to thank the Highlanders’ directors for giving me the opportunity to lead Highlanders. I have done my research about the club and can safely say Highlanders is a sleeping giant I will wake,” he said in his remarks.

He said the directors explained to him that the club may have been relegated but it remained a big side and his task was to lift it back into the elite league. He said with the directors having assured him of their support, he was confident his work would be easier.
When asked if he had by any chance seen the club at training, Petersen said not at any point but would start working with the players this week and he will get to know them.

Simelane said Petersen was given a one-year renewable contract. “We’ve told him this is a big club and we’re happy that he’s also done his research so he knows the expectation. As Directors we can assure him our full support as without it, a coach cannot deliver the results we expect,” Simelane said.

He said they also had full confidence Petersen would achieve positive results as long as he was given the right support. He then explained that the interim coach Alou Badara was not given the job as he had achieved his task as interim coach.
Petersen was recently at Manzini Wanderers whereby he did stay for long, only featuring in the Swazi Telecom Charity Cup before quitting as assistant coach.

Highlanders then got in touch with him and concluded talks on Saturday.

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