Windhoek
Trouble is brewing in the camp of the Orlando Pirates Football Club’s with players reportedly having resolved to boycott training sessions over unpaid salaries.
Sources with intimate knowledge of the inner goings-on at the Ghosts revealed to New Era Sport that the playing personnel and technical staff are up in arms over the shoddy manner in which the club is administered.
New Era Sport has it on good authority that the players only received a portion of their monthly salaries for December, while the technical staff did not receive a single cent.
To make matters worse, the club’s honcho Ali ‘Mr Fixed It’ Akan, is out of the country – leaving the disgruntled players to hobble from pillar to post in the hope of having their palms greased with the remaining portion of their monthly salaries.
“He (Akan) is nowhere to be found and this scenario has left the club without leadership and ungovernable, to say the least,” said one agitated member of the technical staff, who requested that his identity be withheld for fear of reprisals.
“The crisis at the club has now reached serious proportions and unless these problems are properly addressed and arrested soon, I’m afraid the club will not be able to honour our scheduled league fixtures away in Rundu next weekend”.
Pirates are lying 3rd on the MTC Premiership log standings with 28 points – 11 points short of runaway log leaders Tigers – following a good run of results in their last couple of matches that saw the Buccaneers claim the scalps of defending champions African Stars, among other victims.
Our mole also questioned the rationale of bringing former club chairman Axab Gowaseb, back to the Ghosts’ troubled nest. “We are totally in the dark as to what his actual role entails, and should this worrisome trend continue, some of the leading players might resolve to jump ship in search of greener pastures elsewhere, since they have families, kids and rent to take care of.”
Asked to shed light on these damning allegations, Pirates chief operations officer Mabos Vries shot down the allegations, saying it is just a minor misunderstanding.
“We made a gentleman’s arrangement with the players and technical staff that they will receive the rest of the money by the end of December, but unfortunately, the money could not be processed in time,” charged a cagey Vries.
The long-serving football administrator remains adamant that the issue will be resolved in no time, assuring the club’s supporters and all affected parties that everything would be back to normal by end of business yesterday.