Kopo Bleeding About SuperSport Sale

Newly appointed University of Pretoria head coach and former SuperSport United assistant coach Kwanele Kopo has been left in pain to see Matsatsantsa a Pitori’s status being sold to a Bloemfontein businessman.

SuperSport, the company that owned the club, confirmed on Thursday that the club has been sold to Siwelele Football Club, ending one of the long-serving South African top-flight clubs and one of the most iconic clubs in the Betway Premiership.

The Tshwane outfit will be renamed as Siwelele Football Club, and it will relocate to Bloemfontein.

In the wake of the new developments, Kopo, who also served as a reserve team coach at SuperSport and various other roles in 22 years, made an honest admission on the emotional toll the news has taken on him, in consideration of his former colleagues who may potentially be out of jobs.

“It makes me a bit emotional; it’s heartbreaking to be honest. To think of the colleagues that I left there and the players at the club. I saw a post this morning with trophies, and it was captioned, ‘the end of an era,” said Kopo, who was named the head coach University of Pretoria on Thursday.

While the Eastern Cape-born mentor is concerned about the future of the staff members at the club, his heart further bleeds out for the club’s legacy of nurturing talent over the years and its impact on the domestic and continental stage.

“For me, it’s not the trophies that SuperSport won, it’s the lives that were changed, it’s the kids that we produced, it’s the kids that we took from one-room homes, from shacks, and we made them multimillionaires through football,” Kopo added.

“Maybe all that will still be there, but in a different form and a different place. So, it’s very painful for me, and I really wish all the people that are involved, the players, the staff, right up to the ladies that cook for these young players, I really wish them strength in this process.

“I hope that they will really be justifiably rewarded if they are to be out of the club, but if it’s just a change of name, I still wish the club the best. But SuperSport United is a name that will never leave our hearts.”

He continued: “And what SuperSport has done for South African and African football, I think many will have a lot of time to even match it.”