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Kelvin Kaindu

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
MORALE is reported to have hit rock bottom at ambitious Castle Lager Premier Soccer League side How Mine following failure to pay players.

Players are owed three months’ salaries, signing on fees and winning bonuses.

So bad are things at the gold miners that the team only trained once ahead of their Saturday Premiership clash against Ngezi Platinum Stars.

The players refused to attend training sessions, saying they didn’t have transport money, forcing the club to send a bus to pick them from their residences.

Sources within the club said the players agreed to train on Thursday after being promised partial payment on Saturday, but that pledge hadn’t been honoured by yesterday.

How Mine shifted the goal posts yesterday and promised to pay them on Thursday after tomorrow’s encounter with Chapungu in Gweru.

“Things are not well at the club and morale is low. The club owes us our signing-on fees, three months’ salaries and winning bonuses. We haven’t received any bonus for the points collected up to Week 20. We’re supposed to get $300 as winning bonuses and $150 for a draw,” said a source.

How Mine are fifth on the league table with 33 points from nine wins and six draws.

This means players that featured in these match day squads are each owed $3 600 in bonuses.

Another disgruntled player said the club’s failure to honour its promise was affecting their performance.

“How do you deliver when you’re not paid? I’ve to think about rent, how I can buy food for my family and other necessities. I can’t concentrate on my job with such turmoil. That’s why you find us making mistakes because there’s a lot going on in our minds,” said the player.

Coach, Kelvin Kaindu heaped praises on his players for their “fighting spirit” despite the financial challenges they are facing.

“I give credit to the team; we didn’t play according to plan, but I think we’ve been going through a difficult patch whereby even our programmes are disturbed in terms of how we train or when we’re supposed to train,” said Kaindu.

“Going into the game, we thought we were not going to last 90 minutes, but for us to even get a goal towards the end of the game shows that we still have the punch. The attitude of the players is still good. Certain things I can’t comment on, but I appreciate the effort the guys are putting in. It was always going to haunt us if training programmes are disturbed,” he said.

In his post-match interview after losing to Ngezi at Luveve Stadium, Kaindu said the result was not good for his team as they wanted “to stay close to the pack at the top”.

He declined to comment on the disruption of training programmes, saying he can only comment on technical issues.

How Mine chairman, Paul MacAndrew, rubbished claims that they owed players money.

“I don’t know anything about the team’s programme being affected. The only thing that I know is that we provide everything that the team wants and we continue doing so. They even trained this morning. That the players have not been paid are just stories,” said MacAndrew.

@ZililoR