Newly appointed Magesi coach John Maduka has openly stated that he wouldn’t wish the turmoil he experienced at Royal AM on his worst enemy.

The club faced significant challenges last season after it was seized as an asset due to owner Shawn Mkhize allegedly owing the South African Revenue Service (SARS) over R40 million in debt.

As a direct consequence of the seizure, Royal AM did not play a single match in the second half of the previous season. This unprecedented situation led to the Betway Premiership concluding with only 15 teams, as all clubs finished the campaign having played just 28 matches.

The PSL ultimately terminated Royal AM’s membership for failing to honor their remaining 19 fixtures.

A Period of Uncertainty and Difficulty

When asked to reflect on his final months with Royal AM before taking the Magesi post on Thursday, Maduka shared his difficult experience. “Remember at that time, we were also training,” Maduka said. “Because we were not sure what was going to happen. I can say maybe I could go for a month, and that is the period I could not work.”

He continued, “Before that, we were still training because we were hoping something was going to happen. I strongly believe that going through that period was not good, very difficult, that I don’t wish to anyone or any team, supporter, technical staff, players, management to go through that because you go to work but you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. It was something else that I don’t think anyone can wish for to go through. But it had to happen, and like they always say, it happens for a reason; we had to go through that.”

Keeping Spirits High Amidst Adversity

Maduka, who was in his second stint with Royal AM, added, “It gave me a month to rest, trying to motivate the players in case we were going to play. But after that, I had to rest and make sure that I refreshed, and I think I needed that before I took another job.”

He further admitted it was a particularly tough period because he had to exert significant effort to maintain the players’ morale. “Very testing,” Maduka described. “I would still tell the players that ‘Hey, come to training because if they say we are playing next week, we must be ready.’ I don’t know what to say about that because you train, you could see the boys when we were at training, they were training so hard, but in the end, it did not happen the way we wanted, of us being allowed to play games.”

“It was a testing moment like I said — I don’t wish any player, any coach, technical staff, supporters, and especially players and coaches who are directly involved, you don’t want to go through that because you go to training every day but you don’t know what is going to happen. It was not a good time; it was really bad.”