Former CAPS United captain David “Maketo” Sengu has criticised the current players at his former club following their six-game losing streak that include a 3-0 loss to arch-rivals Dynamos in the Harare derby this past Sunday.
Posting on his Facebook page, Sengu, who is now a football pundit on the ZTN Prime TV channel, said the CAPS United players are a disgrace. He wrote:
Most of the Caps fans are blaming Farai Jere for the financial crisis currently bedevilling CAPS United.
There is a strong link between the players’ poor working conditions and poor performance.
However, I have looked at the situation from another angle. My understanding is that these days players now get more money from winning bonuses, than from basic salaries.
One player told me they are entitled to a winning bonus of around the equivalent of USD100.
Imagine if the team wins 6 games, players would expect USD600. This means that the more you win games the more money you earn.
So my question is what benefit do the Caps players get by losing 6 games consecutively?
When the boys threatened to boycott the Cranborne Bullets game, Farai Jere managed to get them the owing bonus for the two wins, but the team went on to lose the game.
As if that was not enough, they continued to lose 4 more games.
As it is Jere will not be looking for more money to pay them since no bonuses will be paid for 6 games.
Is it really about money or it is something else? Who are they fixing and for what reason?
To make matters worse, this poor run has made many fans stay away from Caps home matches, and this has impacted negatively on the money raised from gate takings.
In 2004 Caps could attract up to 15 000 fans at home simply because the trailblazing side was on fire.
Even without sponsorship, a team can afford to pay its players from such gate takings.
I think the current crop of players is a disgrace and don’t deserve to be at CAPS United.