Monomotapa …0 How Mine …(01 THE empire called Monomotapa has crumbled.
BY HENRY MHARA
Next season, its back to the Northern Region Division One, that is if they get the resources to sustain the campaign.
Yesterday, their Castle Lager Premier Soccer League fate was decided at Gwanzura Stadium after the 2008 league champions fell to How Mine.
But the demotion did not come as a big surprise. The signs were there for all to see.
They had no training ground to talk about after they were evicted from Alex Sports Club months ago for non-payment of rentals and the players had been crying for their salaries for a long time now.
So bad was the situation that for yesterday’s match, the Monomotapa players had not met since their last league match two weeks ago and only regrouped a few hours before kick-off.
To their credit, the players battled in the first half, but were always bound to collapse at some stage and they duly did give in just after the break when Thembani Masuku connected home a cross from the right.
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The defeat left Monoz rooted on 26 points and with just six points still to play for, they can no longer catch up with the nearest team Black Rhinos who are on 34 points.
As for How Mine, they moved up into the coveted top eight on seventh position with 41 points.
After the match, Monomotapa assistant coach Conrad Nyambabvu gave a frank assessment of their season, blaming the club executive for the team’s demise. He said the club will not survive beyond this year.
“Football is all about teamwork. The executive, coaches and the players should work together to get results. We the technical team and the players did our best, but we were not complemented. The situation was beyond our control because these players have gone for six months without pay, and this month we haven’t got a cent,” said Nyambabvu.
“I think we deserve to go down, we don’t have the right to be in the Premier League if we don’t have anything in terms of sponsorship. As things stand at the moment, I don’t think Monomotapa will survive beyond this season.
“If they cannot afford to pay their players when they are playing in the league, how will they be able to do that when playing in Division One?”
“We will fulfil the two remaining fixtures, but we will look for other jobs after that. We will just assemble a team to play and not to compete because to be honest these youngsters can no longer compete; they no longer have any power to do that.
“I know the executive will come up with resources for us to fulfil the match so as to avoid sanctions from the PSL. Just like we did today (yesterday), our main aim was to fulfil the fixture since we did not train. We only grouped here and the result that came out was expected,” added Nyambabvu.
Monoz become the third team after Motor Action and Tripple B to get relegated.
