Thursday, October 11, 2012

Bosso players boycott Training Cos Of outstanding Bonuses,

HIGHLANDERS FC players yesterday boycotted training over outstanding bonuses from their last three wins.

Club chairman Peter Dube confirmed yesterday that the club was indeed in arrears.

This is the first time this season that players at the Bulawayo club who are aiming at a league and cup double have protested over outstanding allowances.

The club pays the players' bonuses while the salaries come from their principal sponsor BancABC.

Bonuses are drawn from the turnstiles.

According to senior players at Bosso, the club owes them winning bonuses for their wins against Shabanie Mine, Hwange and Black Mambas.

However, all the players that Chronicle Sport spoke to refused to shed light as to how much they get for every win.

The development is likely to be met with mixed feelings by the Bosso followers who might view the move as sabotage to the team's championship aspirations or players holding the executive to ransom because they are aware that at this stage the club cannot afford unrest.

Others fear it could have something to do with the unrest within the club's board and executive who are at each other's throats on what to do with the disparities in the match remittances for the 2010 and 2011 Premier Soccer League seasons.

"Bra, the thing is, we have been getting our allowances late and we didn't mind because we will get abadala coming to address us on the matter. We love the team and we do our best to make sure that we deliver and we expect them to honour their part as well.

"Today (yesterday) the guys said they will not train if they are not given their dues. There is no problem on salaries, only on bonus issues," said one player.

The team was supposed to train somewhere in Hillside according to a player.

He said their fear was that since they were approaching the end of the season, the club might decide to carry over their bonuses.

"When else can we get a chance to claim our allowances other than this time? If you work you expect to be paid and we have done our part and they just have to pay us. In five weeks the season will be over and if they are struggling to give us allowances now do you think we will get them when the season ends.

"They might forget about the bonuses because the season will be over but we want this issue sorted out so that we return to training," said another player.

The strike will however have little effect on the team's preparations for their next game as the league is on a break due to the Warriors involvement in the Afcon qualifiers.

After this weekend, Bosso will play Monomotapa in the quarter-finals of the Mbada Diamonds Cup while other teams that have been knocked out of the country's richest tournament will still be on a break.

After the Mbada Diamonds game, Highlanders will travel to Harare for their reverse league game against defending Premiership champions Dynamos.

On when they would return to training, another senior player said they were expecting to hear from the club this morning.

"What I can tell you is that we sent our representatives to talk to the executive because the manager (Amini Soma-Phiri) failed to give us satisfactory answer. We will hear from the club. We did not train because we wanted to know when we were going to be paid and we hope this matter will be resolved as soon as possible," the player said.

Peter Dube, the club's chairman confirmed that they owed players winning bonuses and they were running around looking for funds to settle them.

He said the situation was fuelled by the fact that they played two consecutive away matches and since they use revenue generated from the gates to foot their travelling bills and bonuses, they did not have sufficient funds resources to pay the players after the Black Mambas game.
By Sbue
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

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