12 Things you don’t know about Kaizer Motaung

1.  Kaizer Motaung is known as “Chincha Guluva”.

2.  Kaizer Motaung is a founder of Kaizer Chiefs FC, of which he is chairman and managing director

3.  Kaizer Motaung was born 16 October 1944 in the Orlando East section of Soweto, Motaung first played professional soccer at the age of 16, for the Orlando Pirates.

4.  Kaizer Motaung entry into international soccer occurred in 1968, when Atlanta Chiefs Founder and Owner, Dick Cecil, and former West Ham United player Phil Woosnam, who was manager of the Atlanta Chiefs franchise in the then-recently formed North American Soccer League (NASL) recruited Motaung after team trials in Zambia

5.  When Kaizer Motaung returned to his home country in 1970, he decided to start his own professional soccer team. Motaung named his club “Kaizer Chiefs” after himself and his former NASL team

6.  Within a short time, the Kaizer Chiefs became the most successful team in South Africa, winning more than 78 trophies and gaining an estimated fourteen million supporters throughout the country. Indeed, it is often jokingly stated that Kaizer Chiefs do not really play any away matches, as their supporters always outnumber those of the home team

7.  Kaizer Motaung has also been very active in South African soccer administration, having served on both the National Soccer League (NSL) and South African Football Association (SAFA) executives.

8.  In addition, Kaizer Motaung co-founded (with Orlando Pirates’ Irvin Khoza) the South African Premier League (PSL) in 1996, which helped bring more sponsors and money into South African professional soccer

9.  Kaizer Motaung currently still serves as a member of the PSL’s Board of Governors, while also still running Kaizer Chiefs and being on SAFA’s executive committee. He has also indicated that he would accept a position with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) or on world soccer’s governing body, FIFA.

10.  Kaizer Motaung was voted 73rd in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004. He also assisted South Africa’s 2010 World Cup Bid Company and was a member of the delegation that went to the FIFA head office in Zurich to be declared the winning bid. Subsequently he was also appointed as a member of the local organising committee for the 2010 event. Also in 2004, Motaung was given the Entrepreneurial Leadership Award by Henley Management College, South Africa.

11.  In February 2005 it was announced that Motaung would join the board of Primedia Limited as a non-executive director. Primedia is South Africa’s largest private media holding company and owns 40% of Kaizer Chiefs. He has also served as a director on the boards of many other companies such as Royal Beechnut, Simba, New Age Beverages and Get Ahead.

12.  One of Kaizer Chiefs’ biggest achievements was winning the African Cup Winners’ Cup in 2001