MANZINI WANDERERS’ WOES WORSEN

MBABANE - Manzini Wanderers players are reportedly not attending training this week due to ongoing financial difficulties within the team.

The hub giants are currently third from the bottom, just four points ahead of Ezulwini United and five ahead of bottom-placed Moneni Pirates in the relegation battle. The latest news coming from a source within the team is that players were currently not attending training sessions, because they were told there was no money to cover their training expenses.

Relegation

“The players are not attending training after it was called off at the last minute. “The team’s position in the relegation zone and our upcoming match against Madlenya team this coming weekend makes this situation even more concerning,” the source said. A different source shared with this publication that the Ikabort Masocha-led outfit had only one training session and played a friendly match against Royal Leopards last week, adding to the team’s already limited practice time ahead of their upcoming match against Madlenya. “The team also trained only on Thursday of last week and played against Royal Leopard on Friday. Since then, there have been no further training sessions, which is truly heartbreaking to see,” the source added.
It was reported in the past months that the hub giants had a huge wage bill that had gone unattended for months. Players and coaches were unpaid for almost the entire season.

Confirmed

The wage bill at Wanderers was confirmed to be at E130 000 monthly. The hub giants, who struggled and had to fight relegation throughout the past season and eventually survived about three games before the MTN Premier League 2022/23 ended, lost their South African Director, Cedric Mashile Mathatha, early in the season, which resumed last October. Adding up these months from last November to last month, E130 000 totals E910 000. However, most players’ contracts have since been renewed. It took the team’s officials, like their Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Governor, in Lawyer Bongani ‘Bhanyaza’ Mdluli, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Diana Johnson, known as ‘Girlie’ and the management committee, led by club legend Berger ‘Hotline’ Numalo, to save the club’s blushes, as they sacrificed from their own pockets and also got assistance from other parties to avoid relegation. Meanwhile, when the team CEO Diana Johnson was reached, she refuted the claims that the team was currently not attending training sessions because of financial difficulties.

Schedule

“The coaches are the ones who have the schedule on how training will resume and how it will go until the end of the week. Last week we had friendly matches. We hear everything from the technical bench,” she said. The struggling Wanderers will be aiming to bounce back from their recent 4-2 loss against Royal Leopard in the MTN Premier League when they face Madlenya FC this Saturday at KaLanga Technical Centre. Madlenya won 2-1 in the first round.

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