Bosso cut winning bonuses

CASTLE Lager Premier Soccer League log leaders Highlanders owe their players winning bonuses for six matches, two of the matches dating back to last year amid reports that the club slashed players' winning bonuses by half this year. The players are also owed signing on fees dating back to 2009.

Highlanders have had outstanding winning bonuses as from 2010 with incumbent chairman Peter Dube having found the club owing up to four matches from the previous year when they were voted into office last year.

Morale at the club is said to be low and this has been cited as the reason for the string of recent poor results. They lost their last three matches two of them league games and start their second round campaign against Caps United on Sunday, a club that handed them their fourth defeat of the season. It was a 2-1 defeat in the last league match of the opening round.

Last Saturday they bowed out of the lucrative BancABC Sup8r Cup at the hands of FC Platinum who booted them out 3-1 after a penalty shootout.

Last year, Bosso were paying as much as $300 in winning bonuses per game but according to highly placed sources and some senior players, the club reduced that figure to  about $180, which however is still proving difficult to settle.

The figure is believed to be one of the highest in the league.

Last year Highlanders went on a 23 unbeaten match run in the league before surrendering the title to bitter rivals Dynamos on the last day of action.

"While it is four games this year, we are actually owed for six games, two from last year and everyone is now wondering when the club will pay us our dues, even if reduced," said one senior player who requested anonymity. The players who spoke to Chronicle said if the situation continues they might be forced to stage a strike in protest so as to force the executive to pay up.

"The only thing that has been keeping us on is the zeal to play for our coach Kelvin Kaindu. He has been talking to us and urging us to hang on, otherwise we would long have gone on strike," said another player.

Club chairman Dube did not deny owing the players but referred questions to treasurer Jerry Sibanda.

"I do not have the figures and statistics off hand but our treasurer might assist in that regard, speak to him," said Dube.

Sibanda confirmed that the club owes their players winning bonuses and that it had slashed the bonuses.

"Yes it's true that we owe our players some bonuses. What we should all appreciate is that an away match has no funding, we rely on our previous home game which is also where the bonuses come from," said Sibanda.

Highlanders had 10 away matches in the first half of the season.

Sibanda said he has been to the team's training sessions to explain to the players the position of the club as well as assuring them that the money will be paid at some stage.

"I want to salute the players for the patience otherwise they would long have gone on strike. If we get good crowds against Caps United on Sunday I am sure we shall be able to clear the back log," said Sibanda, a former player at the club.

The treasurer said with Highlanders spending a month playing at Barbourfields Stadium, he would wipe out everything that the club owes its players since costs such as transport and accommodation won't be an issue.

Highlanders will play 10 of their 15 second half matches in Bulawayo.

Sibanda said the club used $4 700 per match in winning bonuses if the team wins but they had been averaging just above $3 000 before they increased the gate charges to $5 for the rest of the ground.

On why they slashed the players' winning bonuses by close to half, Sibanda said the club had to live within its budgetary means.

"If you check our budget for winning bonuses for last year,  you will realise that it was around $6 000 and so we had to explain to the players the reality on the ground because it made no sense to us to have such huge bonuses which we knew pretty well that it would be almost impossible to honour. Our figures though are still the highest in the league," said Sibanda.

He denied that they were paying $150 as winning bonuses.

Asked to comment on reports doing rounds that the club was deliberately not paying the players so that the team under performs and eventually give the executive reason to fire head coach Kelvin Kaindu, the Highlanders purse keeper scoffed at the rumours.

"In any other club, Kaindu would long have been fired but because the entire executive is fully behind him and knows that it's only a bad spell, he remains and all measures are being put in place to make sure he renews his contract with us. Those rumours are not true at all and I am convinced the instigators are not Highlanders sons or daughters," he said.

Kaindu's contract with Highlanders expires at the end of the year.