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NewsDay

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Rovers players get maheu after DeMbare windfall

Sport
Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) newcomers Mutare City Rovers are struggling to take care of their players with growing discontent in camp which could culminate in a strike.

Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) newcomers Mutare City Rovers are struggling to take care of their players with growing discontent in camp which could culminate in a strike.

BY KENNETH NYANGANI

The club has failed to fulfil its promises on signing-on fees, salaries and winning bonuses, paying token fees most of the time.

Even on their biggest payday when they hosted Dynamos a fortnight ago, the club paid players $10 each accompanied by a bottle of maheu (a non-alcoholic traditional brew) which costs 50 cents. The club insists that it does not owe its players anything despite having paid each player $100 in signing-on fees before the start of the season.

Even the other less-resourced teams in the league pay nothing less than $1 000 per player in signing-on fees.

After their 1-0 win over Border Strikers in Zvishavane on Monday, the players were given $30 each instead of $60 as winning bonus as had been agreed before.

On their way back to Mutare, their minibus had a breakdown at Birchenough Bridge and an executive member travelling with the team reportedly ordered the players to find their own means of transport back home.

In an interview with NewsDaySport yesterday, Rovers treasurer Victor Gwengwe said the players’ contracts only started running on April 1 and before that all players were on trial.

“All the players were on trials and I can assure you that we don’t owe any player money,” he said.

“Their contracts started running in April, we have written to council to process the payments, but the signatories, Mutare mayor Tatenda Nhamarare and acting town clerk Donald Nyatoti, were not around as they were attending the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.’’

There were questions raised about what might have happened to the funds raised from gate-takings when they hosted Dynamos two weeks ago.

‘’At the moment, we are doing cash in-transit with our gate-takings, all the money is going to council and that is what we did after the Dynamos match,” Gwengwe said.

However, players said they had signed contracts. “We signed one-year contracts and theY paid us $100. They are not even ashamed to talk about trials yet we were all on duty and had been registered with the PSL before April 1,” said one player.