Sports / Local
Warriors vow to boycott Afcon games
08 Jan 2017 at 00:58hrs | Views
Warriors have threatened to boycott the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) fixtures in Gabon if Zifa fails to pay their appearance fees by Friday.
After an intense standoff, a deal was ironed out early yesterday morning with Zifa agreeing to pay a $5 000 appearance fee for every group game and a winning bonus of $6 000.
The agreement was reached after an embarrassing incident which saw the team boycotting a send off reception organised for them by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation on Friday night.
During the stand off, Zifa President Philip Chiyangwa reportedly threatened to call up "a new team made of players who are ready to represent the country".
"Chiyangwa said he will call Issa Hayatou, the Caf president, and request that Zimbabwe registers a new team and that did not help matters. That made things worse," said a source who watched the drama unfold.
According to reports, after initially missing the 1am scheduled flight to Cameroon yesterday, the Warriors reportedly refused to catch a rescheduled 3pm flight, demanding that their local daily allowances be paid.
The team is now set to leave the country today for Cameroon.
Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela confirmed that the team would leave today.
"Everything has been resolved; the team is no longer going today but they are now going tomorrow" he said as reported by the Standard.
"The players have been granted the $5 000 they wanted as match fees as well as $400 in foreign daily allowances, $150 in local daily allowances and $6 000 in winning bonus per match."
Zifa had offered $500 per match in appearance fees, $50 in local daily allowances and $150 in foreign daily allowances.
Apart from the appearance fees and winning bonuses, Zifa and the Warriors representatives also agreed on how they will share the $475 000 qualification bonus that the Confederation of African Football dishes out to the 16 finalists.
"Qualification bonus: 60 percent Zifa and 40 percent team. Appearance and winning bonuses will be escalated at US$2 000 per game. Appearance fees (for) group stage to the players' accounts/technical accounts on or before the 12th of January 2017," reads part of the agreement.
After an intense standoff, a deal was ironed out early yesterday morning with Zifa agreeing to pay a $5 000 appearance fee for every group game and a winning bonus of $6 000.
The agreement was reached after an embarrassing incident which saw the team boycotting a send off reception organised for them by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation on Friday night.
During the stand off, Zifa President Philip Chiyangwa reportedly threatened to call up "a new team made of players who are ready to represent the country".
"Chiyangwa said he will call Issa Hayatou, the Caf president, and request that Zimbabwe registers a new team and that did not help matters. That made things worse," said a source who watched the drama unfold.
According to reports, after initially missing the 1am scheduled flight to Cameroon yesterday, the Warriors reportedly refused to catch a rescheduled 3pm flight, demanding that their local daily allowances be paid.
The team is now set to leave the country today for Cameroon.
Zifa communications manager Xolisani Gwesela confirmed that the team would leave today.
"Everything has been resolved; the team is no longer going today but they are now going tomorrow" he said as reported by the Standard.
"The players have been granted the $5 000 they wanted as match fees as well as $400 in foreign daily allowances, $150 in local daily allowances and $6 000 in winning bonus per match."
Zifa had offered $500 per match in appearance fees, $50 in local daily allowances and $150 in foreign daily allowances.
Apart from the appearance fees and winning bonuses, Zifa and the Warriors representatives also agreed on how they will share the $475 000 qualification bonus that the Confederation of African Football dishes out to the 16 finalists.
"Qualification bonus: 60 percent Zifa and 40 percent team. Appearance and winning bonuses will be escalated at US$2 000 per game. Appearance fees (for) group stage to the players' accounts/technical accounts on or before the 12th of January 2017," reads part of the agreement.
Source - Byo24News
