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Davies Ndumiso Sibanda

Raymond Jaravaza Sports Correspondent—
HIGHLANDERS Football Club is in a financial quandary with the situation likely to worsen. This has forced the club to call an emergency meeting with life members at the clubhouse this afternoon. To illustrate the financial situation faced by the club, players and the technical team are owed outstanding winning bonuses for matches played in June. Players have not received their winning bonuses for the last four matches while the technical team has not been paid for the last five games. However, salaries for players and coaches are up to date.

Board of directors finance committee chairman Davies Ndumiso Sibanda said the meeting was called to brief life members on the financial situation as well as find solutions to rescue the club.

“This meeting, which is rather informal, is meant to inform life members that the club is facing serious financial challenges and that we need to find urgent solutions to save Highlanders Football Club,” said Sibanda.

He said the club was literally surviving due to the mercy of creditors. “If all our creditors demanded their money today, the club will cease to exist, it will collapse. We need money like yesterday. We are borrowing money. The erratic league fixtures which have seen some games being postponed hasn’t helped the situation,” he said.

Sibanda said a number of ‘painful’ decisions regarding the club will have to be made to save Bosso from sinking. He was, however, not at liberty to disclose the nature of the drastic decisions.

“We will be very frank to the life members on the financial situation of the club. We are sinking. Some difficult decisions will have to be made. There are things that we have in the past said we will never do at Highlanders but we might be forced to do those things to save the club,” he said.

Chairman of the board of directors Mgcini Nkolomi weighed in saying that members had a tendency to voice their concerns only when a scandal broke at the club. There has been fears that the club was lax at the gates that saw a number of people coming into the match for free. Chicken Inn recently netted $10,000 in their match against Highlanders.