Durban — A source familiar with the internal working environment at Chippa United has described the working environment at the club as being “diabolical and unprofessional”.
This comes in the wake of the club’s former striker Augustine Kwem taking it to World Governing body FIFA, alleging that it failed to pay its R200 000 sign-on fee for him.
“It’s a very below average working environment. It’s the most dysfunctional one I’ve been in and a lot of people say this. It’s a huge pity. The management side is shoddy and it’s a micro-managed environment. There are people at the club who are not being paid and may go for 2-3 months without a salary. They are not the most professional when it comes to the administrative side of things,” the source told Independent Media.
Earlier in the week, Kwem’s agent Johhny Ogbah told SAFM that his client’s promise of payment from the club was not honoured.
"Simon [Siviwe Mpengesi, the club’s owner] agreed to pay in three installments but has only made two. The due date for the third installment passed a long time ago.
"I spoke to Simon again before going back to Fifa and he promised to pay the money on a certain date, but no money has come. So we thought if we go to Fifa they will pay,” said Ogbah.
As a punishment, FIFA slapped Chippa with an international transfer ban and advised SAFA to impose a national transfer ban on the Gqeberha based side. However, Ogbah said that the punishment could be overturned if Chippa settles the fees that they allegedly owe.
In a statement of response, Chippa hit out at the agent of Kwem and suggested that he should have tried to resolve matters internally rather than approaching FIFA.
“We condemn the agent of Kwem who clearly had a hand in leaking this information. Whereas the club has done all in its power to resolve matters amicably. The matter stemmed from the transfer of Kwem from Chippa United to TS Galaxy where the player ostensibly was happy to forfeit the remainder of his contract to move to a new team, only for him to a year later ignore all local dispute platforms, including the PSL, and SAFA and went straight to FIFA without giving our club an opportunity to ventilate the matter locally,” said their statement.
The source expressed sympathy with Kwem’s situation and suggested that he is not the only one who has been frustrated by the club.
“Kwem is 100% right but he’s not the only one who has been affected. Kwem is probably in a queue of many people who are still waiting for contractual payouts. He’s not the first player to have this issue and is part of a long list of players and administrators who have had issues,” said the source.
The source suggested that the club’s internal administration is preventing it from gaining a solid and loyal following in the Eastern Cape.
Attempts to contact Chippa United and Chairman Siviwe Mpengesi were unsuccessful at the time of writing.
IOL Sport