Kaizer Chiefs - Club Snapshot

Soccer Digest, June-July, 2003

* The Kaizer Chiefs were created in January 1970 by former NASL star Kaizer Motaung, who is now the team's managing director. Motaung led a group of breakaway Orlando Pirates players and went on a recruiting drive to gather a select team, Kaizer XI, to play offseason friendlies. Motaung remained loyal to Pirates and assumed that he would return to the club, but it was not to be. After gaining affiliation with the Nigel Football Association, the team changed its name to the Kaizer Chiefs and became a full-time enterprise.

* Moutang played for two seasons with the Atlanta Chiefs--the team that gave the Kaizers their nickname as well as their black-and-gold colors--winning the NASL Rookie of the Year Award in 1968 and scoring 16 goals in 16 games in 1969, before returning home to South Africa. Motaung once again played in Atlanta in 1971 and had a final NASL stint with the Denver Dynamos in 1974 and 1975.

* Formed long before the abolishment of apartheid in South Africa, the Kaizer Chiefs joined the all-black NPSL in 1971. The league was integrated with the white-only NPFL (which was formed in 1959) in 1978. That league was renamed the NSL in 1984.)

* The Chiefs enjoyed almost instant success, winning the first of their nine league titles in 1974. They've also captured 10 Cup titles, 12 Top Eight Cup wins, and, in 2001, became the first South African team to win the African Cup-Winner's Cup, defeating Angola's Inter Clube in the final.

* Despite being only 23 years in the making, the rivalry between the Pirates and Chiefs is probably the most storied in Africa. Unlike most derby matches, the Johannesburg game isn't a tussle between different economic, cultural, or religious affiliations, it's bred out of a shared history and sporting competition.

* Entering the year, the team record for appearances was held by South African international and former MISer Doctor Khumalo, who played in 397 matches for the Chiefs.

* The Chiefs were formed at a time when violence was a frequent part of the South African domestic league. In order to counter such negativity and political repression--and provide a worthwhile role model for their country's oppressed black youth--the team's mission statement says, in part: "We surround ourselves with Love and Peace as we are passionate and care about people."

* Despite their good intentions, violence and hard luck have long followed the Chiefs. In 1976, Chiefs coach Ewert Nene was fatally stabbed. That same year, one of team's original players, Ariel "Pro" Kgongoane, was also killed, shot during a student uprising in Soweto. In 1991, 42 people died in a stampede at a preseason match between Kaizer and Orlando in the provincial mining town of Orkney. The panic was caused after a knife-wielding Pirates fan--angered when his team conceded a goal--attacked several Chiefs supporters. And, in a 2001 Johannesburg derby, the Ellis Park stadium disaster resulted in the deaths of dozens of fans.

* John Moshoeau holds the club record for the most caps, having earned 63 for South Africa, placing him well ahead of Neil Tovey (52). Tovey holds the record for the most appearances in a season by a Chiefs player (52).

* The team record for goals in a season was set in 1991 by Fani Madida (34). Entering this season, the club's all-time record for goals was held by Marks Maponyane (85).

* Among the early Kaizer players was Doctor Khumalo's father, Elkim, who joined from Swallows. The team also recruited Orlando Pirates stars China Ngema, Elijah Msibi, and Gilbert Sekgabi, City Ramblers player Ariel "Pro" Kgongoane, Ingle Singh and Vincent Julius from Sundowns, and Jackie Masike and "Pro" Molope from an amateur team in Molotsane.

* The team's first meeting was held at the home of founding member Simon Shezi. The former Pirates player also owned a fleet of taxis, which he used to provided the team its transport during its early months.