Following its meeting two weekends ago, the Dynamos board wanted to bar Munetsi and all the other members of his executive from carrying out any further duties on behalf of the club.
The internal wrangling at one stage threatened Dynamos’ participation at Saturday’s international charity club friendly with South Africa’s Orlando Pirates, after the board had reportedly sent letters to both the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) and the Premier Soccer League (PSL), advising them of changes to the Dynamos management.
The board members also demanded an explanation from Zifa and the PSL as to why they were letting Munetsi and his colleagues continue to prepare for the charity match, on behalf of the club when they had allegedly been dumped from the club’s leadership structures.
However, the football governing bodies still allowed the trip to go ahead and Munetsi told The Zimbabwean in Johannesburg that he was a relieved man after the earlier board decision had been rescinded.
“I am relieved because if it stood, the decision would have affected the club’s fight for the league this season,” said the Dynamos chairman.
“The latest decision gives us both relief and credibility, especially considering that we have just had a new sponsor (BancABC). It would not have given us a bad image that a few weeks after getting a new sponsor, we start fighting among ourselves, but the latest board decision will give our sponsor more confidence in Dynamos.”
Munetsi blamed the earlier decision on differences within the board on how to solve the financial crisis at the club, which he said some members of the board blamed on his executive.
“The differences emerged after the Annual General Meeting where the financial results of the year ended December 2010 showed that the club was in debt and some board members thought that the best way to clear this was to fire the executive,” said the Dynamos executive leader, who however, absolved his executive of the blame.
“We accrued the debt when we participated in the CAF Champions League, where the only rich pickings are when the team reaches the semi-finals, which we did not. In the competition, we made two expensive trips to North Africa – Tunisia and Algeria and each trip gobbled between $80 000 and $90 000, yet the gate takings that we relied on for revenue only gave us an average of $15 000 a match.”
Apparently, the executive had presented its intention to borrow and finance its continental participation through debt-financing to the board, which approved.
Munetsi said the loss of the club’s two sponsors last season, Savanna Tobacco and Afro-foods, also made the club’s plight worse.
“We have however, paid up the debt and with the reprieve, I am positive that we will turn things around for the club.”
Post published in: Football