Money issues which resulted in a chaotic 2022 season for CAPS United have resurfaced, amid revelations that players initially refused to train on Thursday due to outstanding winning bonuses.
Club president Farai Jere attended Thursday’s training session ahead of the top of the table clash with FC Platinum presumably to motive Lloyd Chitembwe’s charges, but it has since emerged that he did so for a crisis meeting after the players had refused to train.
ZiMetro has it on good authority that CAPS players have been paid winning bonuses for only one of their three wins so far —the 2-0 win over Manica Diamonds on Matchday 1.
Chitembwe’s men went on to beat ZPC Kariba (1-0) and army side Black Rhinos (2-0) but winning bonuses for those games have not been paid.
A player who spoke to this publication on condition anonymity said Jere, when he attended Thursday’s training session, promised the players that the outstanding winning bonuses would be paid before the FC Platinum game.
“When the president (Jere) came to training on Thursday, it was because of a crisis meeting after he had heard we were refusing to train,” said the player.
“He (Jere) then promised us that our outstanding winning bonuses for the ZPC and Rhinos games, would be paid ahead of the Platinum game.
“The outstanding winning bonuses were not paid and nobody said anything to us. We just played the FC Platinum game and we are waiting to hear from the club’s leadership,” he added.
A well-documented financial crisis affected the Green Machine last season —a campaign in which they ended up being involved in the relegation matrix.