Suspension of Mwalala a tip of the iceberg
What you need to know:
- Players are owed two months salaries and life has been tough for them. The players accuse a senior member of the board of trustees of high-handedness.
- The sooner the board engages the players in a sober conversation to bring this hullabaloo to an end the better, otherwise the drama will continue.
There was a lot of drama at Bandari Football Club last week that culminated in the suspension of Coach Bernard Mwalala.
Those who only read this news the local newspapers must have been caught by surprise, but for those of us in the kitchen, we saw it coming.
Fans who watched Bandari lose to Tusker 2-1 at the Mbaraki Sports on Sunday last week went home a dejected lot, not only because of the lose but also because of the misunderstanding that was laid bare between the Bandari technical bench officials.
I watched in disbelief as coach Mwalala and team manager Wilson Oburu differed when the match was in progress. The coach asked the former international goalkeeper to leave the bench and pushed his chair away. All this played out in front of the fans.
Mwalala could have been right in his decision to throw out his team manager because according to him, Oburu was yelling at match officials over calls he thought were not correct instead of giving tips for the team to concentrate and win the match. Whether Mwalala was right or not is not my subject of discussion today.
In my opinion, the scenes that played out were a clear indication of a divided house with everyone pulling in their own direction.
The Bandari board of trustees promised to discipline the team manager now that Mwalala has stepped aside. However, my main concern is how some players have been misbehaving “knowing that no action will be taken against them”.
I said here in one of my columns that some players have been caught sneaking unwanted guests into their rooms while others simply refuse to turn up for training but cannot be punished or replaced because of the nature of their contracts.
Mwalala said during one of my interviews with him that some of the players signed contracts for up to four years making it almost impossible to sack them.
Another ugly incident that exposed the Dockers players’ level of discipline is an incident that happened after they lost to Tusker.
One of the senior players in uniform and in the full glare of the public confronted a football fan on the stands and reigned blows on him. He accused the fan of hurling insults at him when the match was in progress.
That should not be tolerated at all if the team has to regain its fast-fading glory. That a section of players came to the defence of Coach Mwalala, saying he was not the problem at the club speaks volumes.
Players are owed two months salaries and life has been tough for them. The players accuse a senior member of the board of trustees of high-handedness.
The sooner the board engages the players in a sober conversation to bring this hullabaloo to an end the better, otherwise the drama will continue.
