Safa rubbishes Stuart Baxter's link with Kaizer Chiefs

With Kaizer Chiefs having upped the ante in search of a coach, news emerged this week that they have engaged Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter.

The former Amakhosi mentor has been tipped as the latest candidate in the running for the job at Naturena as Chiefs aim to replace Steve Komphela.

Names such as Avram Grant, Free State Stars Luc Eymael and Nikola Kavazovic of Township Rollers in Botswana have all been linked with the job.

However, the club’s hierarchy is yet to make an announcement on who will occupy the hot seat come the beginning of the 2018/19 Premier Soccer League (PSL) season.

Nonetheless, the South African Football Association (Safa) responded to the reports linking Baxter with a second spell at the Soweto giants.

According to local media reports, Baxter is currently on holiday in Sweden after leading the 1996 African champions to a 2018 Cosafa Cup Plate glory earlier this month in Polokwane.

Moreover, a response by the country’s FA is that the Bafana boss remains contracted to Safa, stating that rumours or speculation that reveal that Baxter is on his way to Chiefs will be treated as such.

On the other hand, the coach’s agent Steve Kapeluschnik, has also rubbished talk that he met with Amakhosi management.

In a tweet on Saturday, Safa using the Bafana Bafana Twitter account said that they have not talked to anyone regarding the coach leaving the national side to coach the Glamour Boys.

With the new season set to begin in August, the Soweto-based are running out of time as they initially planned to have a new coach in place before the start of pre-season.

Chiefs are coachless after Komphela’s departure in April as he ended his three-year stay and failed to bring a trophy at Naturena.

“Coach Stuart Baxter has a contract with SAFA & no one has spoken to the Association regarding otherwise‚” a tweet posted on Bafana Bafana's official account read. 

“We will treat rumours doing rounds as just rumours,” the tweet concluded.

Meanwhile, the English mentor has a contract with Safa which runs until June 2022.