adminEddie Chikamhi Harare Bureau
FOOTBALLERS’ Union of Zimbabwe says today is likely to be another bleak Christmas Day for locally based players as a number of them have approached their offices seeking mediation over unpaid dues.
Many players have been at loggerheads with their employers this season over default in payments of salaries, bonuses and signing on fees.
FUZ secretary-general Paul Gundani told our Harare Correspondent yesterday that they have received numerous cases of late and many players have since resigned to having another Christmas with nothing special to give their families for all their sweat during the year.
“There is a big crisis. We have been approached by players from several teams, Caps United being one of them. We have tried to write to them but it appears they have been ignoring the correspondence so we are left with no choice but to take the matter to the Labour Court. We also had some players from Hwange who said they haven’t been paid their dues in the last six months. It’s a bad situation and I think these things have been worsened by Zifa because of their failure to implement the club licensing system,” said Gundani.
“This is one of the most effective ways we can end all these problems but there’s reluctance on the part of the administrators to implement.
“Even new clubs coming into the elite league should be thoroughly vetted to ensure they meet the minimum requirements. In my opinion, it’s far much better to have a league of eight professional clubs where players are well catered for than to have numbers but with players living in such destitution.
“Recently the Fifa executive met to discuss fines on clubs that fail to pay players on time and I was just wondering that if we can’t get the club licensing going then how much more of a burden will that be on our football?”
Gundani said most of the problems were emanating from the signing of the contracts. The issue of contracts has been a major bone of contention between the clubs and the players. The former Warriors player accused the club administrators of not being sincere as they usually want to take advantage of the players.
“Our advice to players has been very clear. They mustn’t rush to agree on a contract without getting the financial guarantees. They are always sweet-talked into accepting contracts and given promises which most of the times are never fulfilled. Some of these clubs always take advantage of the players and as such are not being honest in the negotiations. Most of the time they create a situation where a player gets desperate by making false promises and waiting until the close of the transfer window. By this time the player will not have many options but to take the contract.
“Maybe what most of these players don’t know, or are afraid to do, is that it’s legal to start negotiating for a new deal as early as six months before the expiry of the existing contract.
“You can even start talking to a prospective new employer and alert your club about that. But this usually is not possible here in Zimbabwe because once the club owners know about it they may decide to persecute a player by denying him salaries and other benefits.
“So I’m saying let’s look at the players as the brand which makes football what it is. We must protect this brand by creating a conducive environment for them to perform to their maximum potential. This can be done simply by giving them what’s due to them.
“In our case where we don’t have corporates, the players are the de facto sponsors of the clubs by their ability to bring people to the ground, thereby attracting gate takings. But it boggles the mind to know that the player is the last to be considered from the gate takings. The club first pays the service providers and the office people and then the player is sometimes told there’s no money, yet he is the one who is luring the people to the ground.”
Online Reporter