Bullock waves goodbye!

MASERU – Two weeks ago, the Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) announced that its deputy secretary general, Chris Bullock, would be leaving his position to return home in the United Kingdom.

His last day in the office is tomorrow and he will leave the country next Thursday. Bullock has been in Lesotho for close to a decade and is well-known for the job he did at Kick4Life Football Club where he led a stable football programme from 2013 when he arrived in Lesotho until his move to LEFA in September 2020.

Bullock sat down with thepost this week in a wide-ranging interview as he reflected on his time in the Mountain Kingdom. It became clear during the discussion that his passion for sport and this country is undeniable. Lesotho is the place Bullock has called home for nine years and he even got married here.

Over the years through Kick4Life and his personal endeavours, Bullock has sought to help athletes better their lives, and says he hopes that one day athletes will be able to make a living through sport in Lesotho. While he is most famous for his work in football, including the women’s game, Bullock has been one of the foremost supporter to 18-year-old middle-distance star athlete ‘Manqabang Tsibela.

He added that it gives him joy to see the players Kick4Life has helped to get scholarships abroad doing well for themselves and having their future in their own hands because Kick4Life’s aim was to always change lives through sport.

When you first arrived here, did you think you would be here for this long?

No. I was meant to come for one year. I adapted very quickly; I was happy here, I was at Kick4Life then and the job started quite well. I knew during my first year that I would probably extend to a second year but there was never any point in my first few years that I thought I would be here for nine years, especially at the start. I agreed to come for one (year).

You have led a stable football programme at Kick4Life for a long time and the performances on the field reflected that. What do you think worked well for you?

The key has always been building a strong team of people, I have never achieved anything on my own. What we have achieved, we have done that as a team. We always had good support at Kick4Life because it was quite a stable organisation, at least, that allowed us to put things into place.

We managed to put (together) a team of good people. I was always lucky with the staff I had, the coaches, the players, and I think we always worked well as a team and that helped.

Before I arrived in Lesotho someone (at Kick4Life) sent me a report because the season before they stayed in the A Division on the last day of the season, they were very close to going to the B (Division).

The players sort of came together and came up with a report (of) why they think the team struggled, and they came up with things like ‘we drink too much’, ‘we don’t respect the coaches’ and I thought: what have I let myself into here?

What helped was that during that first preseason with the players we sat down with them.

I talked about my vision, the importance of working together as a team and wanted everyone to buy into what we wanted to achieve and everybody bought into that vision and were committed to what we wanted to achieve.

It’s all about everybody working well together. I have always been very lucky to have strong people around me, especially throughout my time at Kick4Life, everybody played their part.

It’s not just football you were involved in, you also got involved with the ‘Manqabang support group. How did that happen and is it something you are passionate about?

I realised how much of a role sport could play in the country to better lives, especially for the youth, and I became very passionate about that. What a lot of people don’t know is that my first time in Lesotho was in 2009. I came for two weeks with Kick4Life before I worked for them.

With ‘Manqabang I always remember I was in Botswana at the time and it was a photo of her winning I think it was 3000 metres and it was a photo of her coming first barefoot, behind there was a white South African girl.

In South Africa a lot of white athletes get opportunities at school, you know they are probably quite privileged and seeing this picture of ‘Manqabang made me want to get involved. That’s when I got in touch with the guys.

I really want to see sport developing in Lesotho but I also want to see youths get the opportunities to fulfil their talent. (The) Lesotho Cricket (Association) came to me (in 2020) after Kick4Life and I helped them put their strategic plan together.

I just want to see sports in the country grow. Obviously, football is my main passion, hopefully one day people will be able to make a career out of sport in Lesotho.

All the coaches you have worked with have nothing but good things to say about you, what do you think worked well with you and your coaches?

I think we have always been lucky with coaches, Dona (Motlalepula Majoro) was already there when I arrived; he took us to the Premier League. I don’t think we need to talk about Les (Leslie Notši) and Bob (Mafoso) because everybody knows what their records are and how good they are as coaches, but my job was to support coaches.

I always had a very good relationship with my coaches. We would meet regularly; we would always sit down and talk about what the plans were for the future. (We talked about) how I could support them and what their challenges were and they were also very understanding of what our limitations were and would understand what the budget was and what we could do with the budget and I think that’s important. If you have that regular interaction with your coaches, they also buy into what you want to do.

You have been with LEFA for a while now, how has it been?

I have loved it to be honest, I wish I could have stayed longer and had more time to make an impact but things change in life and you have to make hard decisions. I think I have managed to see where LEFA wants to go, I like to think I have been able to play a part in contributing towards that. A lot of it will still need to be implemented over the next few years, it takes time when it comes to development of football, it doesn’t happen overnight.

If the plans that we have put in place do get implemented, things will improve, football will grow. I am just grateful I was given an opportunity to be part of that journey, I just really hope that football will continue to grow, professionalise and hopefully move in the right direction.

Tlalane Phahla