Gemengde-based outfit Black Africa football club were on the verge of not honouring today’s Debmarine Namibia Premiership encounter against Young African after players threatened to boycott the match due to unpaid salaries.
From Tuesday, Black Africa’s players had refused to train, and threatened not to honour today’s clash until their outstanding salaries are paid in full.
The match is scheduled for the Khomasdal stadium at 19h00, and the probability of them pitching up looked gloomy until late yesterday when the club’s interim chairperson Jimmy Julie confirmed to this publication that the situation has been resolved, and an agreement with the players had been reached.
He blamed a lack of communication between the club’s leadership and the players for the fiasco, saying the players were demanding money from one match and training sessions that were not part of last month’s budget for wages.
“The problem that we had is that the players were being paid per match and per training session. That was done in order to help them with their basics such as groceries and so on after every match played. All matches played in November and the training sessions were well- budgeted for, and wages will be paid over to them,” said Julie.
“But the problem arose from a match against Tigers, which was played on the 1st of this month, as they also wanted to claim wages for that match. But we said that match can’t be paid for as it was played this month and not in November, and, therefore, could not be part of the budgeted wages for last month. They didn’t understand, and resolved to go on strike.” He continued: “But the situation has now been resolved as we reached an agreement to pay their outstanding wages. As we speak now, they have agreed to return to training and prepare for the match against Young African. We also agreed that, going forward, all players will be paid on a monthly basis, and into their respective bank accounts. We communicated to them that we can no longer continue to pay players through e-wallets and blue wallets as it creates problems with our financial recordkeeping.”
Julie, who recently took over as interim chairperson from Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, added that the players had agreed to train yesterday and deliver their best in today’s crucial match.