Bruce Malagas, president of the Athlone LFA, has confirmed to No Bones with Jones that Diadora FC’s name was indeed submitted as part of their list of (two) nominees to Safa Cape Town as Club of the Year.
The other nomination was for the LFA of the Season.
“For the club of the year, it was Diadora, but I am not exactly sure about the coach’s nomination and can’t confirm.
However, our website has established that the Athlone LFA did not submit a nominee for Coach of the Season to the region.
With the great success that Diadora achieved this season, with coach Shakes Mangaliso at the helm, this is a very peculiar decision. The obvious question is why the region did not probe this matter by asking the LFA why they did not submit the coach of the Year nominee whereby Mangaliso should have been rewarded – it just makes sense if you want to reward the worthy winner!
Remember, the coach who wins the Coke Cup is also selected as the coach that will lead Safa CT’s Academy outfit that will participate at the Bayhill Cup – just as Mangaliso did last year and Roger Fortune a year prior.
According to Malagas he is not perturbed with the outcome of the awards as the issue is that there were other LFA’s as well.
“We don’t know what they are doing and we are not responsible for the allocation in terms of finalising the nominees for that evening as to who the winner is. We don’t know what criteria are used. We just submit what we were requested to and that’s it,” he added.
The question that arises is how come the Athlone LFA was nominated for LFA of the Year which was based on the treble success of Diadora, but the club itself did not even feature on the list of nominees for the Club of The Year?
Furthermore, Diadora was awarded with other keepsake trophies for winning promotion along with Clover FC. Not to mention a keepsake trophy for Diadora’s successful title defense of the prestigious Coke Cup. Should the Club of the Year not have been the just reward?
It came as a great shock when Diadora FC, who achieved an unprecedented treble, their league title at the Athlone LFA, back-to-back Coke Cup titles and a successful Third Division promotion, did not feature amongst the list of nominees for the team of the season – nor did their coach Shakes Mangaliso make the shortlist of the three nominees.
Instead, the Dangerous Heroes Ladies team, who only won the Coke Cup for the first time, was the actual winner while Goodwin Lewis, was chosen as the top coach for his promotion-winning feat with Crystal Palace in 2022.
The narrative has been the talk of the town following the region’s senior awards held at the Mayoral Banquet in the Civic Centre on Saturday evening.
This event supposedly rewards the top and outstanding achievers in the LFA ranks and amateur ranks and signifies the end of the annual LFA season.
