FC Hout Bay secretary Lionel Louw says that they are not just a club that strives to maintain the moral high ground regarding their business, but also to work with their players and coaching staff to find the middle ground.
Therefore, Louw has conceded that the club is looking at ‘shortening’ the suspension of their head coach Tom Tobi to smoke the peace pipe which will be in the best interest of all parties.
“Yes, it is still until the 30 January as per letter, but the feeling of the majority of the members is that we might basically reinstate him for the Jomos’ game,” Louw told No Bones with Jones.
This means that the club will show some sort of leniency towards Tobi. Louw also highlighted that he is satisfied that sanity will prevail and that Tobi and the club will be able to find middle ground and to bury the hatchet going forward.
“I reached out to the coach and explained to him not to make a rushed and emotional decision,” Louw explained to No Bones with Jones. “Apologies were given and the resignation was withdrawn. As things stand, he is still under suspension and his assistant (Alfonso) is taking charge of the next two games that are coming up this weekend,” said Louw.
Louw also pointed out that as drastic as their decision might have come across for Tobi and the football public, their aim was merely a “wake-up call’ for the coach to pull up his socks.
Tobi was suspended by the club for two weeks until 30 January 2024 due to his “recent poor form of results” in the Hollywoodbets Third Division campaign after Hout Bay, who occupies the 14th position, could only amas 10 points from 10 matches which included two wins, four draws and four losses.
Furthermore, Tobi was informed that he could be present at all training and match days to merely observe but could not be actively involved in any training drills nor have any influence on the selection of match days.
This meant that Tobi would have missed three matches, the double-header this weekend against Saxon Rovers on Saturday (away) and the derby on Sunday against Ocean View FC (home).
But it is the ‘derby’ against Tobi’s former Jomos Power side on 27 January that made the coach even more emotional about an already sensitive issue. Due to the Atlantis-born Tobi set to miss this fixture, coupled with the fact that he felt that he was being undermined, Tobi announced to the players that he was resigning from his post.
