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NewsDay

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Bonus row at Dynamos

Sport
Just a week after celebrating winning a sensational league and cup double, a huge storm is already brewing in the Dynamos camp with reports players are ganging up against the team’s executive over outstanding winning bonuses. Sources told NewsDay Sport yesterday players and the executive are at loggerheads over bonuses for winning the Castle Lager […]

Just a week after celebrating winning a sensational league and cup double, a huge storm is already brewing in the Dynamos camp with reports players are ganging up against the team’s executive over outstanding winning bonuses.

Sources told NewsDay Sport yesterday players and the executive are at loggerheads over bonuses for winning the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League and the Mbada Diamonds Cup.

Mbada had a purse of $75 000 and the league had $70 000.

It is alleged the executive have reneged from their earlier promise to give players half of total prize money from Mbada while players have been told to completely forget about any bonus for winning the league.

Dynamos players, who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, yesterday confirmed the sad developments at the club.

Players said they were promised at least $1 300 for winning the Mbada Diamonds Cup and almost the same amount for winning the league.

They were supposed to collect all their bonuses on Tuesday at the club’s offices at the National Sports Stadium, but left the place a disappointed lot after the executive offered less than what they had promised.

So dissatisfied were some of the players that they reportedly snubbed the offer altogether. The players are also reportedly planning to boycott the club’s end-of-year award ceremony set for next.

Wednesday to press for their outstanding bonuses. “What is happening at the club is a circus, utter rubbish,” fumed one player. “We were promised we would share half of the total prize, but surprisingly the money was reduced. Instead of the $37 500 we were initially promised, we were told to share only $30 000.

We were told the other money has been used to pay the club’s debts. We were supposed to get $1 300 — those who played all the four matches in the Mbada Diamonds Cup and $1 400 for the league but we ended up getting $1 100. Those who played two matches got $600 instead of $650,” added the other player.

Dynamos treasurer Webster Chikengezha yesterday confirmed players only got part of the bonus for winning the Mbada Diamonds Cup. He said the players would get the rest of the money next week.

But while confirming executive have not paid the players all the bonuses for the Mbada Cup, Chikengezha said it will be “unfortunate” for players to demand any bonus for winning the league. He said there was no prior agreement between the club and players on the issue of bonuses for winning the league title.

“It’s news to me that some of the players are complaining over bonuses we gave them yesterday (Tuesday). We spoke to the players through their captain and we agreed that we will give them the rest on Wednesday, an arrangement which they said are all happy with.

“We gave them $30 000 because we had some other pressing issues which we had to settle immediately. We will pay the other $7 500 as soon as we get the prize money from the Premier Soccer League. I did contact the captain personally and explained this to him, and we agreed on this payment plan,” said Chikengezha.

On the league bonus, Chikengezha said: “We have been paying them their winning bonuses after every match they won, so they have no basis to demand any other money apart from that.

“They should also understand there are other stakeholders; the board of directors, shareholders, team owners and the executive, who should also benefit from that share.

“In as far as we value their importance to the club, they should also remember that we have other commitments to meet as a club.

“We never made an agreement with players they will get anything after winning the league, but as executive we can decide to give them something.

“We normally don’t give them bonuses in cup games, but this time we were giving them bonuses in addition to the allowances they were getting from Mbada Diamonds.

“So for them to come back and demand more bonuses for winning the league is just being ungrateful.”