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CAPS United

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
CAPS United have budgeted a staggering $1,5 million for the defence of their Castle Lager Premiership crown and to cater for their participation in the CAF Champions League this year.

The Green Machine will only know the teams they will face in the Champions League last 16 on April 26 after the Cairo draw.

In a brief statement yesterday, CAF confirmed the draw date.

“The draws for the 16 qualified teams for the group phases of Total CAF Champions League 2017 and the Total CAF Confederation Cup 2017 will take place on Wednesday, 26 April, 2017 at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt at 2pm local time (Midday GMT),” read the statement.

Yesterday, CAPS United president Farai Jere revealed they have already done their estimates so that they can have enough time to secure funding.

They used the CAF rankings, which came out on Monday, to draw their budget.

CAPS United were thrown into the lowest pot together with Zambian champions Zanaco, Ferroviario de Beira of Mozambique and Ethiopia St George’s.

This means it’s certain CAPS will travel across the continent for their Champions League group games.

“As a club we are already working with the estimate budget. We worked with the furthest team from each pot in mind to come up with our figures for the three trips which we will undertake in this stage.

“If you look at those pots, we are expecting at least two North African trips, maybe a trip to Sudan if not two. We came up with our figure using the worst case scenario so we already have our budgets for the upcoming games.

“We cannot wait for the draw in April then start drafting the travel and accommodation bills when the games will be starting in May.

“We need to secure funding for these matches and the time to do that is now,” said Jere.

For this year, the club have tabled a budget of $1,5 million with the larger chunk of that money being chewed by the African safari expedition.

The Green Machine will need about $830 000 for their continental club games while the defence of their domestic title will require about $700 000.

Interestingly, TP Mazembe who were dumped out of the Champions League by CAPS United last weekend, have an annual budget of $10 million.

Should CAPS United finish fourth in their group in the Champions League, they will get about $500 000 after CAF have done their deductions from the $550 000 reserved for such teams.

Jere said they have agreed with the players that they will advance them their 30 percent share of the prize money rather than have them wait up to the end of the year to get that bonus.

The players are set to share $165 000 among themselves.

“The incentive they are getting for reaching the group stage is part of that $550 000 prize money. So we agreed that they will get 30 percent of that amount and we will give them that money in advance.

“However, the players now want that figure to be rounded up to $200 000 and it’s a discussion which we have set for another day.

“But the money we are getting is not that much considering that we will have to travel to three away matches and also host the same number of games.

“We have already travelled twice in Africa, so the share that the club will get will not offset all those expenses,” said Jere.

Jere yesterday revealed that they are yet to pay their players who are set to get $500 each for beating Lioli and another $500 for beating TP Mazembe as per their agreement.

“What we did is that we pegged the winning bonuses at per tie, including both the home and away match. So we still owe them a bonus for the Lioli game as well the match against TP Mazembe.

“That money will be paid and everyone is aware about that and there is no problem at all.

“We don’t have outstanding salaries, we are up to date with our February salaries,” said Jere.

While a winning bonus still appears a must for Zimbabwean clubs, many modern Premiership clubs, including those in Zambia and South Africa, have done away with that archaic system.

The players only get their weekly or monthly salary because that payment is already meant for their services to win matches for the clubs.

However, in the event of success in knock-out tournaments, a club can decide to give the players a bonus but it’s never a must.