By Austin Karonga
A huge crisis is looming at Caps United Football Club as the Green Machine battles to avert a player revolt and mutiny ahead of Sunday’s African Champions’ League Group B match against Egyptian side Zamalek at the National Sports Stadium.
This follows revelations that players have not been paid their May salaries while they only received half their wages in April.
The looming fallout also comes as the club has also transfer-listed its captain Dennis Dauda for comments he made on social media.
Coupled with that, on Tuesday coach Lloyd Chitembwe threatened to quit his post after the team’s Castle Lager Premiership 2-0 defeat to Yadah FC at Morris Depot.
Makepekepe desperately need to win the match against the White Knights in order to reignite their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals following back-to-back 4-2 defeats to Al Ahli Tripoli of Libya.
The Zimbabwe champions only have three points after four matches in the group and now need to win their remaining matches and hope results elsewhere go their way.
One of the Makepekepe players told the Daily News that they were now tired of the fake promises from their bosses regarding their outstanding salaries.
“The last time we received any money was when we got half salaries in April and since then we have not heard anything from the club,” the player, who cannot be named for fear of victimisation, told the Daily News.
“We have not received our May salaries and what makes it worse is the fact that all the winning bonuses from the matches we have won this season are still outstanding. Right now June is almost over and we are yet to get anything from the club.”
Another player said the club was trying to divert attention from the real issues by making Dauda a scapegoat.
“If you read Dauda’s post on Facebook, there is really nothing sinister or a plot to try and fix our game against Yadah,” said the players.
“We all know that he goes to…Walter Magaya’s church but to try and claim that we lost because Dauda fixed the game against Yadah is unfair.
“As players we have all agreed to stand by our teammate and we are going to talk to club management when we report for training tomorrow (today) so that we can all put this behind and concentrate on the Zamalek game.”
In the controversial post on Facebook, Dauda wrote: “Today we are playing my father’s team. I will do my best so that my father will be proud of me. We want a win, no matter what (CAPS).”
However, CAPS United chief executive officer Cuthbert Chitima yesterday said the players were exaggerating the money problems at the defending champions.
“The only outstanding amount the players are owed is for May and everything other than that has been paid and as for June, the month hasn’t come to an end yet and we still have some days left,” Chitima told the Daily News yesterday.
On Dauda’s case, he said: “As for Dauda, we have already taken action against him and we have transfer-listed him because that was careless talk especially with that coming from the captain so any club that is interested in his services are free to sign him.”
Chitima said the media had failed to interpret Chitembwe’s post-match interview and the coach had not said he was throwing in the towel.
“The coach didn’t say that he was quitting. I haven’t spoken to him but I listened to the interview on radio,” he said.
“What he said is all we need to do is to look at it critically and critically doesn’t mean that he’s calling it a day unless I’m missing something.
“There’s hasn’t been any official communication from the coach to that effect and as far as I’m concerned he is happy at the club and we are fully behind him.”
At the start of the season, CAPS board member for marketing Hannah Wright announced that they will be announcing a new sponsor soon but three months later nothing has materialised.
“The partners are there, it’s still in the pipeline, all the paperwork is there and now at their board level and hopefully we should be able to announce something in this coming week,” Chitima said.
While chaos seems to be the order of the day at the Green Machine, it is not the same at Zamalek.
The White Knights’ board member Hani Zadeh and logistics manager arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday to prepare for the team’s arrival today.
Zamalek are expected to touch down at Harare International Airport just after midday as they want to acclimatise for Sunday’s match. Daily News
