Mutuma fights again…Chaos at DeMbare worries club’s principal sponsors Rodreck Mutuma
Rodreck Mutuma

Rodreck Mutuma

Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter—
ZIMBABWE champions Dynamos are testing the patience of their principal sponsors, BancABC, after another wild day at the club saw the “Mad Prince”, Rodreck Mutuma, plunge into his second fistfight, in 48 hours, after a training ground altercation with his skipper Murape Murape.  DeMbare dominated the back pages of newspapers last week, after a crippling strike at the club as players pressed for the payment of outstanding dues, on a number of fronts, and the Glamour Boys were clearly ill-equipped for their Chibuku Super Cup first round tie against Black Rhinos at Gwanzura on Sunday.

Sources told The Herald yesterday that DeMbare’s principal sponsors BancABC, who sunk about US$750 000 into the club last year, with the biggest chunk of the money going into the payment of salaries of the players and technical staff, are now worried about the damage, to their brand, from the unrest at the Glamour Boys.

Although BancABC are keeping themselves far away from the chaos, and prefer not to comment officially on their disillusionment with the unrest at the club, and its possible effects on their brand, The Herald can reveal that the alarm bells have been raised within the corridors of the sponsors.
“To cut a long story short, the bank is not happy with the unrest at DeMbare and could be considering cutting ties with the club,” the sources said.
“The bank feels their image is being tarnished in the eyes of the public.”

While the week-long strike was bad enough, in terms of the bad publicity that it generated for Dynamos and its partners, Mutuma’s moment of madness, in which he head-butted a Black Rhinos player during the Chibuku Super Cup first round match, only worsened the situation.

Although Mutuma apologised for his childish reaction at Gwanzura on Sunday, his altercation with his skipper at the training ground yesterday, and the bad publicity that it is set to generate, is likely to be used as a weapon by those, within their sponsors, who are arguing that the good name of the bank is now being compromised.

DeMbare chairman Kenny Mubaiwa vowed yesterday that action would be taken to restore order at the Glamour Boys and ensure that the country’s biggest and most successful football club doesn’t keep attracting negative headlines.

Mutuma and Murape could face stern sanctions from the club after their altercation at Zimphos yesterday.
Mutuma and Murape had to be restrained by teammates following a disagreement towards the end of their workout at Zimphos.

The incident left the club’s leadership battling a serious challenge as things appear to be falling apart at the popular club in the wake of a crippling strike, which affected preparations for the incident-filled Chibuku Super Cup first round elimination at the hands of Black Rhinos.

Mubaiwa yesterday said he was disturbed by the violent conduct and revealed the players will soon be summoned to a disciplinary hearing.
“I heard there was an altercation at training, but I am yet to get full information on that. As a club we don’t condone any form of misconduct be it at training or during a match,” Mubaiwa told The Herald.

“Obviously, we are going to discipline these guys because we don’t expect players from a big club like Dynamos to be involved in such disgraceful behaviour.

“They will be summoned to a hearing once we get all the information. We need to nip the problem in the bud.
“If we cannot rein in such behaviour at training then we can expect to have worse problems even when we play in continental tournaments. Charity begins at home.”

Their coach Callisto Pasuwa was away attending a Caf A Licence course when the fracas took place.
Pasuwa’s absence appears to have turned Dynamos into a lawless entity as the coach was also away last week when his players decided to down tools.

Assistant coaches Philemon Mutyakureva and Tichaona Diya are preparing the team to face Hwange at Gwanzura tomorrow as they resume their campaign in the league competition.

Reports suggested that Mutuma and Murape fell out over how the DeMbare players should manage their fallout, with their leadership, which exploded last week and remains unresolved to this day although they have resumed training. Mutuma, who returned for a second spell at the Glamour Boys this year after failing to make an impression in South Africa where he had joined Bloemfontein Celtic, has been at the centre of controversy despite also hogging the headlines with his goals in big matches against CAPS United and Highlanders.

Mubaiwa said they needed to keep focused in their quest for a fourth league title under Pasuwa despite the challenges that are weighing heavily on the club.

The Glamour Boys are currently second on the log standings, at par with leaders ZPC Kariba on 35 points after 19 games.
“I think we all realise that it’s not good to lose matches. We may have our problems, yes, but the core business of football is centred on winning matches,” said Mubaiwa.

“That is the only way we can attract supporters to the stadiums and also to get the interest of sponsors.
“As the club’s leadership we are sorry for what happened last week. We had some disagreements and it ended up affecting our preparations for the Chibuku Super Cup match against Black Rhinos, which we lost.

“It didn’t feel right.
“We need to bounce back and probably win our next two or three games as well to get back our winning form. Our supporters should continue to rally behind the team. Everything is under control.”

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