Salary Cuts Looming at Rollers

Team players,management and staff to be paid half salaries at the end of April
• Players have been advised to use their March salaries wisely

TLOTLO KEBINAKGABO

Township Rollers players , technical team and general staff will be paid half of their respective salaries at the end of April should the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) continue, the club president Jagdish Shah has told Gazette Sport.

The Botswana Football Association (BFA) earlier this month took the decision to suspend all football activities with the Premier League, First Division leagues, Women’s Football leagues and regional activities being temporarily halted until April 10.This was meant to curb the spread of the COVID-19 which is continuing to kill people globally and seems it will not stop any time soon.
Now, the suspension of the league has impacted local football clubs significantly mostly considering that they make more of their monies through gate takings.

“Our expectatiton was that we are going to back to training on the 30th of March (yesterday) but now we are not going to as things have not cooled off. But, I can gladly inform that players will be paid full March salaries eventhough they have not been active for some time now,”Shah told Gazette Sport in an telephone interview. “We however, advised them to use the money wisely as we might pay them 50 percent of their salaries at the end of April if the corona situation does not cool off. The salaries might also be delayed.”

He said it is important for Rollers players to use their money wisely as they will not have more expenses because they will be spending most of their time indoors. “All they have to buy now is more food. I mean they will not be spending on things like fuel as they will not be travelling,” he said. “We will communicate with them on the April 7 to map the way foward in all this corona situation.”

Rollers enjoy the financial backing of tycoon Shah who owns many businesses, among them Jack’s Gym, Zebra Net and H & G Advertising. He is also a shareholder in one of Botswana’s biggest distribution companies, CA Sales. He told this publication in an interview earlier this year that the club’s monthly wage bill is between P350 000 and P400 000.