Following the mounting debts at Globacom Premier League champion, Bayelsa United, a cold war appears to be on the horizon inside the Enor Splendour Hotel camp of the club in Oghara, Delta State.
Some players, who called Naijaligue.blogspot.com during the weekend and did not want their identities revealed, complained about the attitude of the club’s chairman, Victor Bari Bote Rumson, and pointed fingers at him for the club’s recent poor performances in recent weeks before the league went on break.
One of the players pointed out that last season when the club won the league trophy for the first time in its history, the club chairman celebrated alone throughout the night without considering the huge contribution of the players.
“When we won the league last season, it was as if we won nothing because we were not made to feel like we had done something big by the club chairman,” began the first player on telephone this week. “The chairman celebrated the league all by himself at our hotel that night by enjoying himself and did not even ask the players anything. His attitude surprised us.”
Another player even alleged that on the night of the triumph that the club threw a party in its Oghara in which fans were treated to a beer-bash, as most of the players retreated to their rooms in the hotel camp.
“On the night of winning the league title, after going round Oghara with the trophy we just went to our rooms and slept off without the chairman even bothering to call us to say he was happy about our performance. The annoying part of it was that he organized a beer party in the camp and so many people in the name of fans came and drank and left. I am not angry with that, but I think he should show us (the players) respect,” said a Bayelsa United defender.
Asked if they were planning a mutiny considering the bizarre call to Naijaligue.blogspot.com, the players dismissed such plans.
“There is no such plan, but we are just concerned that he has been high-handed in his attitude to players and he feels that is the best way,” one of the players alleged.
The players also alleged that most of them are yet to be paid a large sum of their signing-on fees from last season.
It was made known to Naijaligue.blogspot.com that if the club’s management refuses to change its style of administration that Bayelsa United may struggle to finish among the top four following the departure of some key players this season.
But in his reaction, Rumson demanded to know which of his players had brought the allegations before Naijaligue.blogspot.com.
The club chairman made it clear that Bayelsa United owed a few players from last season’s signing-on fees though he admitted that the club was yet to pay salaries up-to-date considering the economic constraints in the country.
“I’d like to know these players,” demanded the Bayelsa United chief, which Naijaligue.blogspot.com turned down. “I will tell you something that we are one of the clubs in the country that is concerned about the welfare of our players. I know the players that are still being owed their fees from last season, and that’s why I would like to know those bringing up these allegations. You know the club is owned and financed by the Bayelsa State government and it is when they make funds available that we pay the players.
“I am concerned about the situation myself. But at the moment when you take a look at the other clubs in the country, you will find out that they are also yet to pay the signing-on fees of their players from last season. So it is not a situation peculiar to just Bayelsa United alone and that is why I have continued to plead for calm on the part of the players. If the sponsors of the team continue to read about one complain or the other in the pages of newspapers, there is the possibility of folding up and I can tell you that most of the players would go unemployed. For now, we owe the players just salaries for this month”
Rumson, however, assured that the club would soon off-set the debt of the signing-on fees and urged the players in the side to work hard in order to defend its title of last season.
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