Orlando Pirates chairman Dr. Irvin Khoza has sent a message of gratitude and celebration to the club’s fans after their Betway Premiership title.
The Buccaneers lifted their first league title in 14 years, ending Mamelodi Sundowns’ 8-year reign on the Premier Soccer League.
The team around head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou ended on a club-record 69 points – one ahead of Sundowns – to complete a domestic treble.
Khoza was elated with the achievement and also hailed the success of the club’s DStv Diski Challenge team who won the reserve league for the first time. However, he also criticized the phrase “14-year drought” being used in context with Pirates after his club has won multiple cup trophies over the past years.
Below is Khoza’s message in full:
A season of work, memory and return!
By its very nature, football is history-making. Team after team, match after match, season after season, the game creates a record. What was once carried mainly by memory, media and the stories of the supporters is now preserved, retrieved, debated and tested through search engines and the internet. The past is no longer left behind. It is consumed with the present, informing the voice of supporters who watch, search, remember, compare and speak back to the game.
It was not lost on me that, in a season in which we won a Treble and the Diski Challenge to boot, one of the dominant themes was: “after a 14-year drought.” In that period, Orlando Pirates won five MTN8 titles, three Nedbank Cups and one Carling Knockout, reached the CAF Champions League final, reached two CAF Confederation Cup finals, and returned to the CAF Champions League semi-finals. The consistency of the performance in the last four seasons demonstrates a noteworthy comeback: three PSL league runner-up finishes, three MTN8 titles, two Nedbank Cups, one Carling Knockout, a return to the CAF Champions League semi-finals, and finally the league title itself. The “14-year drought” theme clearly speaks to the premier status of the PSL league title.
One of the most pleasing features of this season was the increasing return of Orlando Pirates supporters in large numbers – at home at the Amstel Arena and away. This was the visible return of a culture, an event offering, a gathering of belonging, song, colour, memory and expectation.
If there is one lesson football has taught me, it is that you cannot dry today’s washing with yesterday’s sun. History is a foundation, not a substitute for present work. It gives us memory, pride and responsibility, but it does not run, tackle, think, sacrifice or win for us. Each season asks its own questions. Each team must answer for its own time. When we work only for ourselves, effort has limits. When we work for something bigger than ourselves, effort becomes duty, sacrifice becomes honour, and success is shared.
The primary responsibility of a football club is to present a winning team and to win big. Everything else exists in service of that objective. The “everything else” part of Orlando Pirates, largely behind the scenes and invisible to the public, enables the overall success of the team. A successful season is the work of an institution aligned around performance — on the field, around the field, in the offices, in the market, locally and abroad. I know that, to most of you, this is beyond a job. The success of this well-supported team is living proof of your dedication to an endeavour bigger than self. I am grateful for your selflessness.
Thank you, Orlando Pirates Family, for making this a season of work, memory and return.
Dr Irvin Khoza
Chairman
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