Birds Withdraw From CAF Cup
Thursday December 09 2004
Moroka Swallows MD Leon Prins confirmed that the Birds will not be competing in this season's CAF Cup.
Prins says that the club's focus is primarily on performing well and getting to the top of the tree in South African soccer, as well as building up the brand of Moroka Swallows by getting into the African Champion's League.
"The decision was not taken lightly, and much deliberation was made. The decision was made in the long term interests of Moroka Swallows," he said.
"In business, it is all about allocation of resources, and I believe that funds are better allocated to building and improving the team at this point in time.
"In order for teams to be successful in Africa, an excessively large squad is required, and difficulties can occur due to heavy fixtures lists, which increases the work load on players and therefore reduces their effectiveness.
"Look at other teams who have taken part in African competitions - you can see that significant strain is taken by the squad, particularly at the beginning of the season.
"We are very mindful of the importance to grow the brand of Moroka Swallows and our ambitions are to take the club to the top and we need to do this in a carefully structured manner.
"Our short term ambition is to do as well as we can in the PSL and thereby qualify for the African Champions League, which is our real target."
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