BB cuts salaries without notice
TNM Super League champions Nyasa Big Bullets have effected salary cuts on their players and technical panel without notice, triggering an outcry that the procedures were not followed.
Some players interviewed separately yesterday confirmed that they were deducted K40 000 from their June wages.
One of the senior players said the development comes after Football Association of Malawi (FAM) paid Bullets players their Covid-19 relief portion.
When all teams had received the FAM package earlier this month, Bullets players were excluded because they submitted their details late.
“What is painful is that there has been no explanation regarding this deduction. However, we believe that it comes as a result of FAM relief funds which we received two weeks ago,” said the player.
Another player described the club as being unprofessional for effecting salary cuts without explanation.
“Logically, what we are seeing is that the club wants to use the FAM token as a compensation for the salary cuts. We may not have problems with that, but we were supposed to discuss this with the leadership,” he said.
When contacted yesterday, Bullets chief administration officer Albert Chigoga said he would revert to us, but had not done by press time. The club’s chief executive officer Escort Chinula was also unavailable.
On his part, FAM communications and competitions director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the issue is an internal matter.
“What I know is that Bullets players were paid the first round of Covid-19 relief a bit late due to delays in submitting names. Like all clubs, we paid them directly,” he said.
Football Players Association president Jimmy Zakazaka said the stand taken by Bullets, if true, is unfortunate.
“What we will do is to wait for a complaint from players affiliated to our association. Then we will institute an investigation
“We will also hear from the club as regards to any agreements they might have made in a bid to address the Covid-19 impact. May be, this disagreement could stem from there,” he said.