Ouaddou considered Orlando Pirates exit after half-time dressing-room row, documentary reveals

Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou came close to walking away from the club on the day they sealed the 2025/26 Betway Premiership title, after a furious half-time confrontation with a senior official in the dressing room, according to the club’s own documentary series.

The Moroccan, who guided Pirates to the championship with a 2-0 victory over Orbit College on the final day of the season, stunned supporters in his post-match interview when he hinted he could leave, saying he felt “tired” after a taxing campaign.

Now the final episode of Bucs Camp, the club’s behind-the-scenes documentary, appears to shed light on the tension that lay behind those remarks, with players and staff revealing how a high-ranking Technical Director stormed into the changing room during the interval of that decisive match.

Technical Director ‘came, guns blazing’

In the episode titled ‘We Fight Until The End’, defender Deon Hotto recounts how the mood changed dramatically at half-time, before Ouaddou and his staff had even begun their team talk.

“Half-time, we’re in the change room, yoh! I will never forget this day, yoh!” Hotto says. “It was just something. It was crazy! It was crazy to be honest. Before the technical team could even say anything, the TD (Technical Director) came into the changeroom. It was the first time, to be honest, to see our TD in the changeroom. He came, guns blazing! Angry! The tempo was high!”

Hotto explains that the unnamed Technical Director immediately ordered silence and delivered a scathing assessment of the first-half performance, insisting the side were not playing in the manner expected of Orlando Pirates.

According to Hotto, the official accused the players of making poor decisions in the final third, shooting from difficult positions instead of finding better-placed team-mates.

“‘I don’t want someone to be a hero, no! I want Pirates, the Pirates we know, the guys who are sharing the balls, but what I’m seeing here, is just b’, ja you understand? But yoh!’” Hotto recalls the Technical Director saying.

Players intervened as Ouaddou ‘was ready to leave’

Hotto reveals that the incident left Ouaddou incensed to the point that he attempted to walk out on his role in the middle of the title decider.

“I stood up also, you understand,” Hotto says. “The coach (Ouaddou) wanted to leave but luckily we were there just to tell him, ‘Coach, you have to stand here and speak, this is your team.’”

Assistant coach Mandla Ncikazi, speaking in the same episode, backs up Hotto’s account and describes trying to calm an increasingly volatile scene.

“When that moment happened, the coach being the coach, he was ready to leave, now here is me trying to manage the situation with the players, trying to manage the coach, who was already leaving, walking into the backroom, trying to make some sense,” Ncikazi says.

Public doubts over Ouaddou’s future

Ouaddou had already hinted at the strain he was under within minutes of lifting the trophy, using his post-match media duties to suggest he might not continue despite securing the league championship.

He described himself as “tired” after what he called a gruelling season, a comment that immediately triggered speculation about a possible departure.

In the days that followed the title win, the former Marumo Gallants coach repeated that he was considering his position, fuelling debate about whether he would return to Orlando Pirates for the following campaign.

Those remarks came before the Bucs Camp footage was released, leaving supporters and observers to guess at the reasons behind his uncertainty.

Documentary offers rare glimpse behind the scenes

The Bucs Camp series, produced by Orlando Pirates, has charted the club’s season and provided rare access to players and staff as they navigated their ultimately successful title challenge.

The final episode, ‘We Fight Until The End’, focuses on the pressure surrounding the decisive fixture against Orbit College and the internal dynamics on the day the Betway Premiership crown was secured.

While the club has not publicly identified the Technical Director involved in the half-time confrontation, the documentary’s revelations give the clearest insight yet into the off-field flashpoint that nearly prompted Ouaddou to resign at the height of his success.

No further official comment on Ouaddou’s future is included in the episode, and the documentary does not state whether the relationship between the head coach and the hierarchy was resolved in the weeks after the title win.