Kaizer Chiefs are back in the African Confederation Cup this season and will hope to show much-needed improvement in the 2025-26 campaign.

Jessica Motaung might not be the designated voice at Kaizer Chiefs regarding all things technical or player movements, but her role as a director at the club does mean she holds sway.

When she graced the unveiling of a new African Champions League trophy, the press immediately saw an opportunity to quiz her about plans to make the Soweto giants great again.

At the time, coach Nasreddine Nabi was also a hot topic in the media despite ending a decade long major silverware drought.

Motaung, through her work with the African Club Association where she is the vice president to Hersi Said, had been invited as a representative of the organisation but would have calculated the media ambush that naturally came her way.

“It’s exciting that Kaizer Chiefs are back in the CAF competitions,” Motaung responded when asked about AmaKhosi qualifying for the Confederation Cup as one of the perks of winning the Nedbank Cup.

The Glamour Boys will return to continental football for the 2025/26 season eager to emulate what Betway Premiership rivals Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates achieved in the previous campaign.

Sundowns lost to Pyramids in the final before heading off to the Club World Cup, while the same team eliminated the Buccaneers in the semi-finals.

“For Chiefs to be back there is something that we have been waiting for – we were in the final a few years ago (losing to Al Ahly in 2021) and I am sure our supporters are excited.

A big congratulations to the club for winning the Nedbank Cup. I know our supporters on the continent are excited too.”

Will Chiefs cope?

“I think juggling the schedule both in the league and on the continent is something we have always had it mind,” Motaung explained.

“Of course, we will plan for and resource ourselves appropriately. But I think what is also exciting is the work that CAF has done in making sure that financially teams who are in the preliminary stages have the resources like the USD 50 000 that club are getting – and the fact that they have increased the prize money is also helping teams, if they win, to use that money to reinvest. And certainly from a Chiefs point of view we will make sure the right resources are put in place for the team to be able to compete at all levels.”

Chiefs’ topsy-turvy few years with the changing of coaches and instability has robbed the Premier Soccer League of having all three of the traditional rivals (alongside Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates) rubbing shoulders with the best in Africa.

Motaung, however, praised a club like Stellenbosch, who got to the last four of the Confederation Cup, and put it down to a great advertisement of the prowess of the domestic league.

“I think the representation that South African football has had shows what a strong league we have – I must say congratulations to the PSL. I hope South Africa can be a lesson to other leagues to say is there a way the knowledge can be shared continentally as well,” she added.

Chiefs fans refuse to accept their beloved club has become mediocre overnight and they went through an entire campaign yet again with near misses as well as some excruciating defeats.

How would Motaung summarise it?

“I don’t think it’s a season of failure. I think it was a season of many seasons. It was a season with a lot of journeys – some of them up and some of them down. We have to go back and understand what we have not done right at the league level, the resource and also look at what we have. We need to find a way to build on some of the success going forward,” she said.

Motaung made it clear Chiefs will reinforce the squad.

“I think resourcing the club remains one of the most important things – we need additional players that will have the stamina of what we are going to be facing ahead and the challenges. There are a lot of discussions on how to beef things up internally. Player movements has been something we have always taken seriously and you can see in the last two transfer windows, the coach had round 10 players. In our review we discuss how to keep the players that have done well and deserve to be rewarded, while also looking at how to beef up – even from within when you look at how our DStv Diski Challenge has done by winning the reserve league. We’ve got a long journey playing on the continent now.”