‘BIRDS’ GAME IN LIMBO AS: PLAYERS REJECT E60K GIFT FROM MC

MBABANE – Mbabane Swallows face potential forfeiture of today’s MTN Premier League match against Rangers due to ongoing salary disputes with their players.

This publication reported in our sister newspaper, Eswatini News, yesterday that the capital city giants’ players had turned down an E1 500 offer to play against Rangers, demanding two months’ salaries instead. This comes after the defending champions are experiencing a tumultuous period regarding their players’ salaries. It is alleged that the players have gone unpaid for the past two months, with their last payment being received in September, and even that was only half their salaries.

Swallows Acting President Absalom ‘Mvana’ Ngwenya, has reportedly declared they have no money to pay players their salaries. Ngwenya purportedly made this statement during a hearing held at the Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC) offices, this past Tuesday. However, impeccable sources at the Caleb ‘No Nonsense’ Ngwenya-led side have shared with this publication that, as previously revealed, there was going to be a meeting with the players that saw the management reportedly roping in other PLE Executive Committee (ExCo) members to go to the players at the Sandla clubhouse to once again try and talk to them about changing their minds.

However, the players reportedly stood their ground and refused to honour the game, giving the team an ultimatum. “The players turned down another offer from the management, this time an offer of around E2 500 as a gift to each player, just to play the game, with the players still refusing, mentioning that they want their salaries for the past two months,” the source said.
When multiplying E2 500 by the 24 players the team has registered, it means that they rejected E60 000 from the MC as a gift to honour the match.

Another impeccable source said the players bluntly told the management that the only way to play the game was if former Chairperson Princess Lungile, is given back the team to run it. The source further stated that at the time of compiling this report at 8pm, the Swallows players had still not reported for camp and had not trained for a single day this week, leading to the game today. Efforts to obtain comments from Princess Lungile were made through multiple phone calls; however, her phone remained unavailable at the time of this report.

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