Midfielder George Maluleka says that not qualifying for next season’s CAF Champions League would be the worst-case scenario for Kaizer Chiefs.

The Amakhosi sit 10 points behind league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns, who still have a game in hand, and while they still stand a mathematical chance of catching the Brazilians, qualifying for the Caf competitions remains a more realistic target. After a damaging 3-0 defeat at the hands of Chippa United this past weekend, Chiefs may need to re-evaluate their targets.

Maluleka has admitted that Chiefs only have themselves to blame for falling off the pace in the title race and has highlighted Caf qualification as the bare minimum for the remainder of the season.

‘We put ourselves in this position with the points that we dropped, when we could have maybe gotten a draw or collected maximum points,’ said the midfielder.

‘But we have ourselves to blame for that and that’s how football goes. Our fate is not in our hands, and right now we just need to focus on ourselves. If we took four sets of three points then we could have been talking a different story now.’

‘Anything lower than third place would be a disappointment for us. I think worst case scenario is not qualifying for CAF,’ he added.

‘I think we want to qualify if the league doesn’t happen, and that would at least give us that boost to say, “Let’s go on and take on the continent”.’

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