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PIRATES GET E70K LESS MOMO CUP PRIZE

23/11/2022 07:19:00 Pholisile Hlophe

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MBABANE – A bittersweet feeling for Moneni Pirates.

The hub side and inaugural MoMo Cup 2022 runners-up to eventual champions and elite rookies Nsingizini Hotspurs won E350 000 as their prize. They missed out on the E600 000 grand prize, which was won by Nsingizini, who further got the E100 000 participation fee. In total, excluding ticket sales’ shares, Moneni’s monies amounted to E450 000 but it is their E350 000 prize money that was tampered with.

The Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) could not wait to give Pirates the opportunity to count all their money, but deducted E70 000 for a pending debt the club had to settle. It is understood that the debt was for a financial advance to the team which had been running without a director for about three seasons until last month. They have since managed to convince South African businesswoman Alinah More to be part of their Board of Directors’ structure and own the lion’s share of their club.

Settles

“The PLE deducted E70 000 from the prize money but it’s good for us if it settles a debt that we’ve had for a while now. Call the right people they will give you the details about what happened even though we do need as much money as teams to run smoothly but we also must settle debts,” said a source close to the black and white Moneni Buccaneers. This, the source viewed it as something the club’s Management Committee (MC) should feel as a relief than hard done. It is understood that when the new MC led by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mhlonishwa Motsa came into office two months ago, the burning issue at hand was that of Cameroonian player Laurant Abah who demanded a compensation of E90 000 for unfair dismissal and got Federation of International Football Associations’ (FIFA) order to have them pay him the money.

Following the decision by the Dispute Resolution Chamber of FIFA, Moneni was ordered to pay the claimant the amount of E90 000 as compensation for the breach of contract plus five per cent interest per annum, from January 19, 2022. The club Public Relations Officer (PRO) Mbuso Hlophe said generating income was sweet melody and a relief for the club. “The Premier League of Eswatini subtracted E70 000 from the MoMo Cup prize money for a debt that we had. The team is run through money and if we get money it’s a relief. We have daily needs, a clubhouse, people who work in the club and all that needs money. We are grateful to MTN, through MoMo for this money,” Hlophe said.

In essence, Pirates received E280 000 of the prize money and E380 000 when the participation fee is included. Meanwhile, the Sea Robbers of Moneni are on mid-table in the standings with six points and they lost to Mbabane Swallows over the weekend with a 1-0 margin. However, they played good football but failed to put the ball into the back of the net. There was no immediate comment from PLE as CEO Kenneth Makhanya did not answer their cellphones and a text sent to the latter had also not been attended to by close of business yesterday.