adminEddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
THE CAPS United leadership are seeing shadows, where they are supposed to be looking for solutions to resolve the crisis that has hit the Green machine, with chief executive Joe Makuvire blaming “some external forces” for the disturbances at the club.CAPS United players refused to train on Thursday until they had been paid outstanding dues ranging from three months’ unpaid salaries and bonuses and some of the players trooped to the offices of the club’s former vice-president, Farai Jere, to ask him to bail them out of their plight.
It was a desperate move, which appears to show the extent of desperation in their camp, and Jere, who still owns a 25 percent stake in the club but is not actively involved in the running preferring to further his studies at the University of Zimbabwe as he pursues his dream to build a Hilton Hotel in Zimbabwe, refused to entertain the players.
However, opinion has been split among the CAPS United fans who took to the forums provided by social media yesterday to express their outrage over the way their players are being treated while some said the club’s leadership should be given a chance to find a way out of the mess.
The Herald established yesterday that the fallout between the players and their leadership, especially the chief executive and his office staff, started on Sunday after their painful defeat in the Harare Derby at the hands of Dynamos.
The players were supposed to get US$10 each as transport allowance, once they had been dropped in the city centre by the team bus, but they received nothing and repeated calls for them to get help yielded nothing.
Having sacrificed so much to take the club back to a place where it could challenge for the league title again, without getting their dues at times, the CAPS United players decided that they were not getting a fair deal from their leaders and demanded a meeting with club owner Twine Phiri.
When that meeting failed, they downed their tools. The club’s leaders have been asking the players to be patient, telling them there will be allowances and rich pickings from the Mbada Diamonds Cup that is expected to get underway next weekend.
There were reports yesterday that coach Taurai Mangwiro had quit the club but the gaffer told ZBC News that he was still part of the Green Machine and was confident there would be a solution to their challenges soon.
Makuvire said they were carrying out their assessment of the events, the incident helped them open their eyes to some external forces trying to fan disharmony in their camp.
“CAPS United is not a closed institution, it’s a big social organisation where anyone can easily have interest.
Anyone would want to be associated closely with the brand so we cannot rule out foul play in this case.
“We are operating in extremely difficult conditions but we should not stoop so low and kill the morality and honour so as to get money.
“But if you look it from another angle, it’s good that such a thing happened because we learnt something from that.
We now know that there are some dark hands hovering over us. We should be more vigilant.”
Makuvire however could not give out names of the people they suspect to be behind the revolt and insisted that they were not interested in carrying out witch ― hunts.
Makuvire also gave assurances that no action will be taken against the players who took part in the boycott. CAPS United players returned to training yesterday and were promised to get all their dues as a matter of urgency. “We engaged the players and the more you talk with them the better you understand their situation.
But most importantly we decided we are not going to do any witch-hunt.
“Instead of instituting a witch ― hunt we adopted a problem solving approach and we hope to settle everything smoothly.
“We will get back to business as usual on Monday when we start preparing for our next game, which is the Mbada Diamonds Cup match against Motor Action.
Today (yesterday) it was more of talking and re-orienting, trying to unite the team again.
“As a club we are working hard to address the concerns raised by the players.
Although it’s unfortunate that the way they raised their issues was rather unacceptable, it does not defeat the fact that there are concerns that need to be attended to.
“As the leadership we are obliged to make sure that all is well in the club.
Unfortunately it now appears there are some external parties that wanted to get publicity out of this,” said Makuvire.
CAPS United had been enjoying a good run on the pitch recently and had managed to knit together a 10 ― match unbeaten run until last week when they lost 1-0 to bitter rivals Dynamos.
They are currently fifth on the log standings with 35 points, six adrift of leaders DeMbare with nine games remaining. They have not given up hope for this year’s championship and are also looking to launch another strong challenge in the Mbada Diamonds Cup following a bright start this season.
Makepekepe have been disappointing since they last won the league title in 2005 but they have shown determination to reclaim lost glory this year.
Online Reporter