Jeff Butler (8 January 1934 – 22 April 2017) was an English football manager who coached in Africa during the 1980s and 1990s, winning four Zambian and four South African league titles.

Early life

Jeff Butler was born on 8 January 1934. He married Valerie . During his coaching career he claimed to have had a long professional playing career in the English Football League, but this was later proved to be false.

Coaching career

He coached the

Nkana Red Devils Nkana FC is a football club based in Kitwe, Zambia. The football team is competing in the MTN/FAZ Super Division, and is regarded as one of the country's most popular teams. Nkana FC has won 13 League titles, which made it to be Zambia's most su ...

to their first four Zambia Super League titles in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

. He also coached the Zambia national team in 1984. He then coached Egyptian club Al Ahly. Butler went on to coach South African club

Kaizer Chiefs Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (often known as Chiefs) are a South African professional football club based in Naturena, Johannesburg South, that plays in the Premier Soccer League. The team is nicknamed ''AmaKhosi'', which means "Lords" or "Chie ...

on four separate occasions between 1988 and 1996. Chairman

Kaizer Motaung Kaizer Motaung Snr OIS (born 16 October 1944) is a former South African association football player and founder of Kaizer Chiefs FC, of which he is chairman and managing director. He was nicknamed "Chincha Guluva". Early life Born in the Or ...

later recalled that Butler was in Cyprus at the time he recruited him. The club were struggling at the time of his arrival, and Butler instigated "a massive shake-up" by letting go of the club's ageing stars in favour of young talent. In the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

they won the

JPS Knockout Cup JPS may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Jamestown Public Schools (disambiguation) * Japan Pension Service * Japan Photographic Society (19th century) * Japan Photographic Society (1924–) * Japan Professional Photographers Society * J ...

. Chiefs went on to win the NSL First Division title in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

and

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

; the

BP Top Eight Cup MTN 8 is the current branding for a South African soccer cup competition launched in 1972 for teams who finished in the top 8 positions of the league table of the country's preceding top-flight league (currently the DStv Premiership) season. T ...

in 1989, 1991 and 1992; the Ohlsson’s Challenge in 1989; and the Telkom Charity Cup in 1988 and 1989. He won domestic trebles in 1991 and 1992. He narrowly missed out on winning quadruple in 1992 after losing the Coca-Cola Cup (Telkom Knockout) final to AmaZulu. After one treble he told his players "Don’t think you won the World Cup. You must come back next year and win all those trophies again.” Striker

Fani Madida Fani Madida (born 7 December 1966) is a South African former professional footballer who played as a midfielder or forward in South Africa for Giant Blackpool, Kaizer Chiefs and Hellenic and in Turkey for Beşiktaş, Antalyaspor and Bursaspor ...

won the 1991 National Soccer League Golden Boot award after scoring 34 goals in all competitions, and said that "if I'm not mistaken, we went 7 successive gamesunbeaten n 1991/92and that was never heard of before and no coach in South Africa has ever matched that record". Butler later won a league title with Mamelodi Sundowns in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

Phil Masinga Philemon Raul Masinga (28 June 1969 – 13 January 2019) was a South African professional footballer and manager who played as a striker from 1990 to 2002. He played in the English Premier League for Leeds United, and Italian Serie A for Salern ...

and Daniel Mudau had a highly successful strike partnership and Masinga won a transfer to English Premier League club Leeds United. Butler briefly coached the

South Africa national football team The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international Association football, soccer and it is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. The team's nickname is Baf ...

in 1992, the nation's first coach following their readmission to

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

after the ending of apartheid, but never took charge of a game. He was quickly removed from the position after it was revealed that he had lied about his history, passing off the similarly named

Geoff Butler Geoffrey Butler (born 26 September 1946) is a former professional footballer who played as a defender in The Football League between the 1960s and 1980s. He started out with his hometown club Middlesbrough and made 55 league appearances for t ...

's playing career as his own. He returned to the Kaizer Chiefs and after leaving in 1996 he was persuaded to return to coach at the club's academy. Defender Johannes Mudau described him as "a very strict coach, while on the other hand he allowed players to display their skills and talent... a very friendly person, he was a motivator and confident builder". However rival coach

Gavin Hunt Gavin Hunt (born 11 July 1964) is a South African former football (soccer) player and coach who currently manages Supersport United. He previously managed South African Premier Division, Premier Soccer League club Kaizer Chiefs. On 28 May 2021 ...

said that "he was an average Englishman. He was fake to me, he was completely fake".

Death and legacy

Butler retired to Spain, and then returned to England before he died after a long illness on 22 April 2017. He was survived by Valerie, his wife of 52 years, and four children. A minute's silence was observed at the Kaizer Chiefs next match, against

SuperSport United SuperSport United Football Club (often known as SuperSport) is a South African professional football club based in Atteridgeville in Pretoria in the Gauteng province. The team currently plays in the Dstv Premiership. United is known as ''Matsats ...

at the FNB Stadium. His three sons – John, Mike and Tim – went on to attend a Soweto Derby match against the Orlando Pirates, and went on to say that "we felt closer to our father as a result". FIFA president Gianni Infantino wrote a letter of condolences to

South African Football Association The South African Football Association (colloquially known as SAFA) is the national administrative governing body that controls the sport of football in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) and is a member of the Confederation of African Football ...

president Danny Jordaan.

Honours

Nkana Red Devils * Zambia Super League:

Kaizer Chiefs * NSL First Division:

Knockout Cup A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

: 1988, 1989 *

: 1989, 1991, 1992 * Telkom Charity Cup: 1989, 1996 * Ohlsson’s Challenge: 1989 * Nedbank Cup: 1992 Mamelodi Sundowns * NSL First Division:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Jeff 1934 births 2017 deaths English football managers English expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Zambia English expatriate sportspeople in Zambia Zambia national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Egypt English expatriate sportspeople in Egypt Al Ahly SC managers Expatriate soccer managers in South Africa English expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Kaizer Chiefs F.C. managers South Africa national soccer team managers Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. managers Expatriate football managers in Botswana English expatriate sportspeople in Botswana Botswana national football team managers Association football coaches English expatriate sportspeople in Spain