Gunners to challenge FIFA ruling
Larona Makhaiza | Saturday March 11, 2023 06:00
Bafana took the matter up with FIFA after his club failed to keep up with salary payments. An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated the club will challenge FIFA's ruling.
“We did receive the letter from FIFA that orders us to pay our player Bafana an amount of P400,000 and this came to us as a surprise as we do not know how the player and FIFA reached that amount,” said the executive member. Reports indicate that Bafana's salary is P5,000 with the player still having a running contract with the club.
"If the player earns P5,000 as a basic salary, as the executive, we feel that FIFA and the player are blowing the whole thing out of proportion as there is no way that the money we owe Bafana can reach that amount in a short period," the official said. The debt is from 2021 and Gunners have engaged a lawyer to deal with the issue.
The lawyer is reportedly preparing the defence, which will be sent to FIFA, to convince the mother body to reconsider the amount. “We now expect the lawyer to wrap up the papers sometime next week and after he finishes doing that, we will then liaise with FIFA,” the official added. The club will reportedly include, in their document to FIFA, that the player has been residing within the team's lodgings free of charge. The club expects this to be a mitigating factor which could convince FIFA to reduce the amount. “Bafana has been staying at Gunners houses rent-free, he has not been paying anything for the houses even for food, but what we normally have with our players is that there have to be deductions from their basic salaries.
These deductions are the ones they use to pay rent at the club’s houses but for Bafana, there has never been a deduction on his salary and for this reason, we also feel that the player owes us,” the source said. Gunners are also unhappy that the player went to FIFA without engaging the new committee. Instead, he had been communicating with previous office bearers. "As a club, we feel that had there been transparency between the club and the player we could have maybe reached an amicable decision.
Only if he had engaged the current board instead of someone from the previous board," the official said. FIFA, in their letter to Gunners, indicated that if the club fails to pay the player within 45 days from February 20, they face a transfer ban. But the Gunners official said they had not received the part on a possible transfer ban, and there was nothing from the local mother body, the Botswana Football Association. He said the club will continue to engage the player in an effort to offset the debt. Meanwhile, the club's vice chairperson, Bonno Ngwamotsoko told Mmegi Sport he is quitting the club. "We just got off a meeting with Bafana and Gunners is really in shambles.
There are lot of things going on here that we didn't know about mostly done by the previous committee . For this reason I'm meeting the executive to tender my resignation and part ways with the club and preserve the little dignity I have. It is also meant protect my other interests as I don't want them to associated with the Gunners drama," Ngwamotsoko said.