Sinethemba Badela skating on thin ice at Chippa United

SABC Sport has learnt that the rift, which insiders say began well before the start of the new season, stems from a lack of alignment in how the two see the future of the Chilli Boys.

Both Badela and Mali arrived during the off-season, bringing youthful energy and fresh ideas to the Eastern Cape outfit.

At first, their appointments were viewed as a bold step toward a new era for the club, but sources suggest the honeymoon period didn’t last long, with disagreements over recruitment strategies, squad planning, and the overall vision coming to the fore.

On the field, Chippa began their Betway Premiership campaign with a credible 0-0 draw against defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns but followed that up with a 1-0 defeat to Durban City on Wednesday night.

While not disastrous results, the pressure is mounting — and off-field discord threatens to overshadow the football.

Badela, 35, is in his first head-coaching role at the highest level, having previously worked as head coach of All Stars in the Motsepe Foundation Championship, reserve team coach at Sundowns, and assistant coach at Moroccan giants Wydad Casablanca.

Mali, 32, brings his own ambitious ideas, also centred around making the club a true Eastern Cape team, on and off the field, as shown by some of their signings so far.

Badela was also clear recently about the need to still strengthen the team in certain areas.

“Of course, we always disagree on things. If you find people you work with who agree on everything, then you know there’s a problem there,” he said at the launch of the Betway Premiership.

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“But I wouldn’t say there’s fights. We’re all following the ambition of the Chairman (Siviwe Mpengesi), the direction that he wants us to take. We’re trying our best every single day to follow the lead from the Mpengesi family.”

Speaking again after the Durban City loss, Badela remained optimistic about the campaign ahead, stressing that it’s still early days.

“Not winning in two games doesn't worry me. What worries me is the performance.  We have to look at the performance and improve. The performance against Sundowns was not enough.

“We will watch the game and review. We will improve. That’s the only thing I’m worried about. We have to take it one game at a time.

 “We must not forget that we are a new team. Most of these players are playing together for the first time. We have new signings. There's still a long way to go,” that’s how Badela reviewed their first loss of the season,

Chippa currently occupy the 11^th spot on the log, with one point from two matches, and it remains to be seen how the club is going to handle this tense situation going forward. Efforts to get a response from Mali proved fruitless at the time of publishing this article.