Heartland boycott gathers steam
by Humphrey Njoku 28 July 2012, 07:06
Heartland players are continuing with their boycott of training barely 48 hours to Sunday's Matchday 35 tie at Sharks in Port Harcourt.
The Naze Millionaires are yet to train since returning from Port Harcourt on Tuesday where they picked a Federation Cup semifinals ticket at the expense of Crown FC.
SuperSport.com learnt that players' grouse is etched on the management continued failure to honour its words to offset their match bonuses, sign on fees and other entitlements.
The team's financier, the Imo State government has reneged on its words severally to make fund available to the management to write off backlog of arrears to the disenchanted players.
A top player of the side, who would not want his name in print, told SuperSport.com that the duel would have been a cracker except for the low morale among his teammates.
"The encounter would have been any other cracker, at least, that was our view when we were leaving Port Harcourt after the Cup quarterfinal match.
"We wanted to make it a do-or-die game considering the fact that we lost the first fixture but all that has changed as nobody is talking about the game any more.
"We've not been training since we returned from Port Harcourt on Tuesday over unpaid signing-on fees, match bonuses among others.
"The management has made many unfulfilled promises in the past and we keep believing that things will change for the better.
"But it's looking like a pipe dream, right now the management look so ashamed to even come out to talk to the players.
"Probably they've run out of what to say or they can't face the players. Of course, it's wrong for management to tell players to continue to fend for themselves.
"We don't want promises but concrete step to address our plight. I won't say we'll not honour the match at Sharks, it's squarely the management to decide.
"Of course, if they come forth positively to sort us out we'll head to Port Harcourt for the game but we won't listen to pleas for us to manage ourselves and play the game," he said.
The Owerri-based side are ninth on the log with 49 points from possible 102 with three games to end the season.
