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Dynamos row

Sport
A ROW has erupted in the Dynamos camp between the club’s executive and the players over the prize money from the Mbada Diamonds Cup and the Premier Soccer League championship.

A ROW has erupted in the Dynamos camp between the club’s executive and the players over the prize money from the Mbada Diamonds Cup and the Premier Soccer League championship.

REPORT BY DANIEL NHAKANISO SPORTS REPORTER

The club’s executive engaged the double-winning Dynamos players for pay negotiations through team manager Richard Chihoro at Raylton Sports Club yesterday.

With many predicting a windfall for the players, the club’s executive yesterday brew a shocker as their offer fell well short of the players’ expectations, leading them to reject the offer outright.

For winning the league title, Dynamos pocketed $70 000 from Delta Beverages, who sponsor the league through their Castle Lager brand.

Recently Dynamos added the Mbada Diamonds Cup — the richest knock-out cup in the country — to their trophy cabinet and walked away with a staggering $100 000 pay cheque.

Sources, however, told NewsDay Sport that the two parties could not agree terms as the players refused the executive’s offer.

“Richard Chihoro (the Dynamos team manager) addressed the players on the distribution of the prize money from the league championship and the Mbada Diamond Cup.

“He informed the players that the executive would give the players $20 000 from the league championship prize money, while they were offering $40 000 from the Mbada Diamonds Cup.

“They said the money would be shared among the 30 players based on merit, with members of the technical team getting double what the players would earn. The coach would receive three times what the players would get. The players were united in rejecting the offer and said they would not accept the money until the executive revised its offer,” said the source.

Another source, in seemingly confirming the standoff yesterday, said: “These are problems in the family and I don’t think it’s right to make them public.”

Dynamos chairman Keni Mubaiwa was, however, singing a different tune as he dismissed reports of player unrest at the club. Mubaiwa said they had agreed with players that they would get 40% of the earnings from both competitions.

“Yes, there was a meeting with the players today (yesterday) over the distribution of the prize money. As far as we are concerned, the meeting went on very well despite the fact that the players were beginning to shift from what we had agreed on way back. We had agreed with the players long back that they would get 40%, but naturally they were beginning to shift goal posts, but in the end we reached an agreement.”

The Dynamos executive had last week said they would in their pay negotiations consider that the players would be without income as they go for the off-season break.

They said last season they did not encounter problems as the players were happy with what they got after also winning a league and cup double.

Dynamos will begin their preparations for the marathon 2013 season as early as January as they start their campaign with the Charity Shield before entering the Caf Champions League foray in the first round as they have a bye from the preliminaries.