Platinum speak out:
FC PLATINUM chairman Evans Mthombeni says reports that he was involved in an altercation with Norman Mapeza, after the coach lost his cool and charged at him during an ill-tempered meeting on Friday, are not true.
Sources have claimed Mapeza, who has won two back-to-back championships with the Zvishavane miners, charged at Mthombeni after the FC Platinum boss insinuated the coach was behind an industrial action staged by the players before their league match against Triangle.
The sources said even though the players’ salaries had reflected in their bank accounts the previous day, they still pressed on with their protest on Friday and the leaders were forced to convene an emergency meeting to deal with the unrest.
It was during those discussions, said the sources, that Mapeza objected to insinuations he had led the players to revolt against the leadership and accused the club chairman of pushing that agenda.
“We had a problem on Friday when players surprisingly went on strike soon after their salaries had been paid a day before our game against Triangle,’’ the sources said.
“As the executive, we came and addressed the players and their coaches, but there was an ugly incident when Norman clashed with us, he interjected when the chairman was speaking.
“The chairman and the president challenged the technical department that such an industrial action was not possible without them inciting and that is when Norman started shouting words like ‘come-on,’ throwing car keys all over and had to be restrained on several occasions.’’
Club president George Mawere said it was normal for tempers to flare, but dismissed suggestions the parties came close to an altercation.
“It is not something amiss, it is usual for tempers to flare in any meeting, but the most important thing is to resolve things amicably when such things occur,’’ said Mawere.
“People do not share same ideas and, like I said, what is important is to deal with the differences properly, everything in our camp is in order and there is no problem.’’
Mthombeni said there were some elements who wanted to feast at any small indication of a problem in their camp to try and disrupt the club’s quest for glory.
FC Platinum have, under the leadership of Mawere and the tutelage of Mapeza, transformed themselves into the most dominant football club in the country in the past two years.
“This was the first meeting of such kind after the team’s CAF (Champions League) campaign and immediately after the start of the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Season,’’ said Mthombeni.
“The meeting was held to discuss a number of pertinent issues to do with both internal issues and the domestic season.
“As FC Platinum, our primary objective remains one of retaining the Premier League title and our head coach Norman Mapeza is central to this. As such, there are no plans to bring another coach at FC Platinum and at no point has FC Platinum tried to engage another coach.’’
Other sources have been claiming the FC Platinum leadership are already lining up British expatriate Mark Harrison as a possible replacement for Mapeza.
The coach, who now has three championships under his belt, is also the target of a number of South African clubs after the way he inspired his team to back-to-back draws against Orlando Pirates in the Champions League.