Nyasa Big Bullets have confirmed the return of their former coach Elia Kananji as technical adviser.
The club’s general secretary (GS) Kelvin Moyo and Kananji himself, confirmed the development, saying the deal was expected to be sealed yesterday.
Kananji was assistant coach at Bullets’ rivals—Be Forward Wanderers—until three weeks ago when he was fired alongside his former boss Eddingtone Ng’onamo.
“We are re-engaging Kananji in a different technical role having been recommended by the coaching panel. They feel he [Kananji] can help in some technical areas in our quest to defend the league title.
“The suggestion was to rope him in as one of the assistant coaches, but we do not want to disturb the current set-up. So, it has been agreed that we hire him as technical adviser,” said Moyo.
He added: “We are supposed to finalise the deal later today [yesterday]. The only drawback is that we hear in his letter of termination of service from Wanderers, it is stated that he cannot be employed by another team until after three months.
“We haven’t seen the letter yet, neither have we verified that with Wanderers, but we should be doing that today.”
On his part, Kananji said: “It is true that I am returning to Bullets. In this [coaching] profession you can coach any team at any time and that is why it is important to leave honourably even when you have been fired unceremoniously because you are bound to return at some point.
“I am looking forward to another stint with Bullets. We are finalising everything today and hopefully, I should report for duties either tomorrow [today] or Wednesday.”
Although he also claimed that his letter of termination from Wanderers states that another team can only employ him after three months, the Nomads GS Mike Butao expressed ignorance on the matter.
“Both Kananji and Ng’onamo are free to join any team of their choice today, yesterday or tomorrow. What would we benefit by putting such a restriction? And would such a restriction be legal at all?” wondered Butao.
“Where and how is Wanderers involved in this? We have brought in Yasin [Osman] and Bob [Mpinganjira] and these are the two coaches we would rather talk about.”
Nevertheless, Butao said Kananji’s manager Charles Twalibu sought clarification on the same and he was informed that Kananji is free to start work elsewhere.
Kananji was head coach for Bullets prior to joining Wanderers and led the People’s Team to TNM Super League glory in 2014 before he was demoted to assistant coach for not having the required CAF B Coaching Licence. He was later on fired. n
