Orlando Pirates on Wednesday unveiled eccentric former coach Ali Akan as its chairman in a bid to improve the club ‘s fortunes for the upcoming season.
Akan replaced Axab Auchamp, who stepped down due to an overload in commitments, leaving the club ‘s elder ‘s council to turn to the naturalised Namibian, who has coached several clubs in the country for 20 years.
The club also announced that they had brought in former stalwart Ivan Namaseb as caretaker coach, with Enrico Afrikaner his deputy and Heribert Kapeng doubling up as third assistant and goalkeepers ‘ coach.
Namaseb is Pirates ‘ third coach in two months, after replacing Bertus Bock, who was hired in the off-season in place of Lucky Kakuva.
“I ‘m here to improve the club. I have ideas to do so,” Akan told The Namibian Sport.
“I agreed to hold this position until 2020 and after that there will be a review to see what will happen next,” he added.
“When I came to Namibia in 1995, Pirates were the first club I coached. We know each other very well. We have won together in the past. This time I ‘m in a different role but the aim is the same. I want to help the club to achieve their objective and reclaim the glory days,” Akan said.
Pirates will look to kickstart their renaissance with victory over Tura Magic in their MTC Premiership 2014-15 season-opener at Windhoek ‘s Independence Stadium on Friday night.
“Like I said, the idea is to bring the glory days back. It won ‘t happen overnight but we have the capacity to do it,” Akan said of his objective.
“For us to achieve what we want, the administration must be in order. We also need to focus on improving our youth development structures and the club ‘s supporters must be organised,” he said.
Standing between Pirates and silverware will most likely be the defending champions African Stars, bitter rivals Black Africa and FA Cup holders Tigers.
Stars begin their title defence at home to Mighty Gunners on Saturday, while BA travel to Walvis Bay to face Eleven Arrows, and Tigers host Citizens.
“We have a very good team. Pirates are a big club. We can challenge for the league. In fact, every season we must challenge for the league,” said Akan.
The opening round also sees Civics at home to Unam; Julinho Sporting host debutants Young Chiefs in Rundu; United Stars have a derby date against Rundu Chiefs; and Blue Waters welcome another newcomer, Rehoboth ‘s Flamingoes, to the elite division.
Round two will be played on Sunday and the fixtures are as follows: Civics v Tura Magic; Orlando Pirates v Unam; Tigers v Mighty Gunners; African Stars v Young Chiefs; Julinho Sporting v Rundu Chiefs; Eleven Arrows v Flamingoes; Blue Waters v Black Africa.
