The Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB) has successfully presented the case involving Cercle Sportif Don Bosco pair Dirang Moloi and Phenyo Mongala. They presented the case during the FIFPro Division Africa Congress held in Abidgan, Ivory Coast last week.
CS Don Bosco duo Moloi and Mongala had filed complaints owing to their club’s failure to live up to the terms stated in their contracts. In January, Gazette Sport reported that the players had cited unfavourable conditions, breach of contract and an overall negligence of their welfare.
The complaints included frequent water shortages during training sessions which resulted in the players struggling to remain hydrated during the sessions. This they said affected their performances in training and ultimately led to them struggling to feature in the club’s first team.
They also had transport issues; in the first months of their arrival they were transported to and from their training base but they were discarded and told to plan their own transport arrangements. One unconfirmed report stated that the players did not have official bank accounts, instead they received their monthly payments by hand.
FUB has been handling the case since last year; they decided to forward the case to FIFPro Division Africa after Don Bosco had continuously ignored responding to their queries. Moisse Katumbi, the TP Mazembe and Don Bosco owner, is reportedly in possession of the contracts and has not availed the contracts since the players’ revolt last year.
Last week the FUB met the Union de Footballeurs du Congo (DRC players union) to discuss the matter before submitting their case to FIFPro. FUB’s counterparts informed them that there are numerous cases involving clubs failing to honour contractual agreements with their players.
In recent years players have struggled to cut ties with either CS Don Bosco or TP Mazembe; the former refused to grant their Ghanaian goalkeeper his chance to leave in January while the latter blocked Zambian defender Stopilla Sunzu from joining English club Reading in 2012.
FUB’s head of communications, Kgosana Masaseng told this publication that they have made progress in their efforts to end the saga. “The FIFPro board has agreed to take up the matter on our behalf and the players union in Congo will assist because of their proximity. What makes this difficult is that Don Bosco has not availed contracts as yet. It is for this reason that we approached FIFPro for their intervention,” stated Masaseng.
“In the interim, the board through the office of the secretary general will engage all parties involved to get more details about the issue. The board will as from today take over the issue with all those cited. Our DRC partners have also confirmed that they will pursue the issue at their next meeting and they will notify us of the meeting once they have consulted their football association,” the FUB’s representative stated.
Masaseng added that, “As the union we are now confident that this matter will be dealt with. Now that it is headed for the status commission we are of the view that they will give their version of events.”