The Chiefs coach was informed that the application for his work permit had been successful, and that when The Amakhosi face up to the challenge of Moroka Swallows on April 1, he will be able to assume his position on the bench.

Without a work permit for his first game in charge on March 10, when Chiefs dismantled Bloemfontein Celtic at the Absa Stadium in Durban 4-0, Papic had to watch from the stands but did make his way down to the pitch at the end of the game to congratulate his players and salute the crowd.

When informed that his work permit had been successfully processed a truly delighted Kosta Papic said, “I am glad that I now have the necessary documentation which will allow me to fully carry out my duties. It has been at the back of my mind every day for the last two weeks and now that the work permit has arrived, I am grateful to all of the people who worked hard to ensure that I got it.”

Asked if he was looking forward to sitting on the bench against Swallows Kosta Papic further added “watching the game from the stands and being on the bench is like you are watching two different games. Up in the stands I cannot give out instructions and things look differently from up there. it will be nice to finally get onto the touchline.”

With his work permit safely stamped in his passport, the Chiefs coach has turned his attention to Chiefs game this Sunday’s wich is for the Nelson Mandela Museum Charity Challenge against Bloemfontein Celtic in Port Elizabeth.

Having to do without a number of players missing through national team. Papic has had to work with a team made up of different players. The Chiefs coach has been pleased by the work rate and commitment of the players through the week, and is confident of a repeat performance from two weeks back.

“We have a very young team travelling with us to Port Elizabeth to take on Celtic" there are a number of exciting youngsters who will get a run against Celtic. The younger guys will benefit from playing alongside first team regulars, the likes of Shaun Bartlett, Scara Ngobese, Kaizer Motaung Junior and Fabian McCarthy,” said Papic.

When quizzed about whether he is concerned about facing a Bloemfontein Celtic team riding high on the euphoria of just having knocked Orlando Pirates out of the Absa Cup, the Chiefs coach quipped, “not really we did manage to beat them 4-0 recently. The thing is that we do not fear the opposition as much as they should be concerned about us.

“Like I said earlier we have a well balanced team travelling to Port Elizabeth, the so-called fringe players are given the stage to demonstrate their willingness to want to play first team football regularly. So I am confident that the team that takes to the field on Sunday will have more than enough motivation to want to win the game and put up an impressive display.”

Papic and his team will leave for Port Elizabeth early on Saturday morning and are expected to participate in a number of social responsibility activities the day before the match. Part of which will be a coaching clinic to be conducted at a school in Port Elizabeth, details of which will be made available later on Friday.

Sunday’s game, which will be preceded by a host of entertainment at the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium, will kick-off at 16h45. Tickets for the match are currently on sale and can be purchased at a cost of R30 (grandstand), R25 (open stand) and R10 (children under the age of 12 years).

In addition tickets are available from the offices of the Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City Municipalities, Nelson Mandela Museum (Umtata), Neeg Bank (All Eastern Cape branches) the Eastern Province Rugby stadium offices, BP Garage at Southern Wood (East London) and at the Bloemfontein Celtic offices in Bloemfontein.