Highlanders players stage protest over appearance fees

Highlanders players staged a three-hour sit-in at the club’s offices on Sunday night, demanding to be paid their appearance fees for the Bosso @90 Challenge match against Dynamos at Barbourfields Stadium. Bosso lost the game 2-3 in a penalty shootout after the match had ended in a 2-2 stalemate at the end of 90 minutes.

Speaking to The Chronicle, Highlanders players said that the club broke an agreement to pay them $150 each as appearance fees, which they alleged their Dynamos counterparts got. Instead they were each paid $30 at the club’s offices after being addressed by club treasurer Donald Ndebele and manager Vezigama Dlodlo. However, the club’s acting chairperson Modern Ngwenya said they never agreed on a fixed appearance allowance because we didn’t know how many people were coming for the game, but shared the money we got equally among the players.

Club treasurer Donald Ndebele said the players were lying that Dynamos players got $150 each as the club shared $1 500 among the players. However, Highlanders still owe their players winning bonuses for their 3-0 win over Hwange on the last day of the season which ended two weeks ago.