Former Kaizer Chiefs coach Khalil Ben Youssef has spoken out against the concept of co-coaching, admitting that it’s a phenomenon he learnt about in the Betway Premiership.
Ben Youssef was recently in the co-coaching set-up alongside Cedric Kaze at Chiefs in the 2025/26 campaign. The coaching duo was at the helm in the previous campaign after taking over the job from head coach Nasreddine Nabi.
The Tunisian mentor parted ways with the Glamour Boys in September 2025, having been with the club since July 2024.
After Nabi’s exit, Kaze and Ben Youssef, who served as his assistant coaches at Chiefs, steered the ship, leading the Soweto giants to a third-place finish on the league table.
As a result, Chiefs qualified for next season’s CAF Confederation Cup; however, it was not enough to secure the long-term future of Ben Youssef and Kaze, who have since been fired at the end of last season.
Following the two coaches’ departure from Naturena, Ben Youssef has criticised the co-coaching arrangement, arguing that technical decisions require a sole head coach.
WHAT KHALIL BEN YOUSSEF SAID ABOUT THE CO-COACHING CONCEPT
“I’m not familiar with that [co-coaching]; I learned about that in South Africa. I remember the first season when coach Arthur Zwane was in the situation of co-coach at AmaZulu; I was asking people every day in Naturena how they were working,” Ben Youssef said on Metro FM.
“Because at the end, there is someone who has to make decisions. So if I’m co-coaching with another person and I decide to play the 4-2-3-1 formation and the other person wants to play 4-3-3, what are we going to do?
“In the situation at Kaizer Chiefs, we had a meeting on the first day; Cedric and I know each other, I was the first assistant coach, and he was the second assistant coach [under Nabi].
“Cedric said we know each other, where we are not agreeing on something, your ideas will come first, and during the season, we didn’t have any challenges; we were always on the same ideas.
“But sometimes when we make substitutions, we were not on the page, and we would keep my ideas and continue. I mean, we learn football from the highest level, so did you ever hear one day that Real Madrid, PSG, or Barcelona have a co-coach? It’s impossible.”
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