HARARE - The impasse between Dynamos and Cameroonian striker Christian Ntouba took a new twist yesterday with both the club and their sponsors NetOne, declaring that the player has been fully paid his dues.
Ntouba has not featured in DeMbare’s opening five matches with his manager Gilbert Sengwe coming out in the open declaring that the Cameroonian could not play as the club dithers to settle his signing on fee and salary dating back to last year.
NetOne, who since January have taken over as Dynamos’ sponsors, said the player is no longer owed anything and has he in fact has been receiving his salary since then.
The telecoms giant even went an extra mile to settle some of the outstanding signing on fee from last season.
NetOne invited Ntouba and his manager to yesterday’s press conference which they held in the presence of company’s senior management and the Dynamos executive led by Kenni Mubaiwa.
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Somehow, Ntouba and his manager chose not to attend the presser to give their side of the story.
However, sources close to the player revealed to the Daily News that Ntouba’s handlers are making frantic efforts to terminate his current deal by frustrating Dynamos as they have found a new home for him outside the country.
“… in the recent past, the media has been awash with stories surrounding the strained relationship between Dynamos and one of their foreign players — Christian Ntouba, and have read with anguish the various versions of the story,” NetOne chief executive officer Lazarus Muchenje said yesterday.
“Whilst, this matter is purely what we would like to believe, a misunderstanding between Dynamos and Ntouba, the prolonged stand-off between the two parties has become a cause of concern for our brand.
“To this end, we went over and above our contractual obligations and called for an all-stakeholders meeting with Dynamos and Ntouba’s manager on Friday evening, to seek clarity on the matter with a view of assisting both parties to find an amicable resolution that is mutually beneficial for all brands.
“To this end, we wish to put it on record and categorically state that NetOne is not in any financial breach in terms of its sponsorship agreement with Dynamos and has processed all of Ntouba’s allowances and sign-on fee as per the schedules submitted to NetOne by Dynamos.
“To date, NetOne have paid a gross total of $18 125 to Ntouba. As the sponsor, we have ensured direct payment to all the players through our OneMoney platform, as per the provisions of our agreement with all the three clubs.”
Muchenje continued: “We invited Dynamos executive as well as Ntouba and his manager to this press conference, to assert our position as NetOne and allay any misconceptions that we have not been paying the player since the beginning of this year.”
Mubaiwa said the club is going to institute a probe to ascertain why the player has not featured for the club in their opening five matches.
“We don’t owe him anything just like what our sponsors have alluded. We do not know where all this is coming from because everything was settled and we expected him at work just like all other players,” Mubaiwa said.
“We are actually going to look into it to find out why he has not been reporting for work. We will get to the bottom of the matter soon.”
Dynamos have had a difficult start to their 2018 Castle Lager Premiership season managing only two points in their opening five matches following two draws and three defeats.
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