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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
ARE things falling apart at CAPS United? Just when they seemed to be on course to mount a serious challenge for both the Premiership title and the Mbada Diamonds Cup, the CAPS United ship hit turbulent waters at the weekend when coach Taurai Mangwiro quit in a huff.

Mangwiro revealed that he had decided to pack his bags and leave the Green Machine, moments after his side had crashed to a 3-1 league defeat to Shabanie Mine at Maglas.

The coach’s resignation once again sparked widespread calls on club shareholders Twine Phiri and Farai Jere to bury their differences and “find each other again for the good of the club’’.

It is a firm belief among some of the CAPS United supporters, players and followers — including those who inundated The Herald with calls — that the duo could revive their combination which had turned the club into a professional entity and a standard bearer in the domestic game.

There is hope among the same fans that the pair could work together again to steer the club to success after managing to survive relegation in the seasons that the team’s form had hit hard times.

Phiri and Jere had also received a lot of credit for taking a tough stance to weed out the old guard within the CAPS United playing ranks and embark on a rebuilding exercise that was premised on a strong youth policy.

CAPS United were also the first club to expel suspected match-fixers well before even Zifa had instituted sanctions on Asiagate culprits when they took stock of the problems that led to their successive fights against relegation.

But there has been unease in the CAPS United administration corridors since the boardroom problems related to the shareholding structure erupted, which forced Jere to walk out from his post as club vice-president in November last year, and the dispute has still not been settled.

The issue of the row between the CAPS United shareholders found its way back in the public domain again on Sunday after Mangwiro threw in the towel and painted a gloomy picture of the scenario at the Premiership giants where he claimed he had gone for three months without being paid.

However, CAPS United chief executive Joe Makuvire declined to discuss the latest on the club’s shareholding row.
“CAPS United is social institution but it is not a democracy . . . the relationship between CAPS United and Mr Jere is extremely confidential and should not be discussed by parties that are not privy to the arrangement or agreement between the two parties involved, it is not a matter for public consumption at the moment,” Makuvire said.

But Mangwiro indicated that he took the decision to quit after several weeks of soul searching after which he felt that resigning from his post was the best option “under the circumstances’’.

The former Masvingo United, Monomotapa and Eastern Lions coach had endeared himself with the CAPS United fans especially against his background of having been an ex-Dynamos player.

Mangwiro’s stint at CAPS United seemed to have been cut short when he was sidelined by the ban imposed on him by Zifa over the Asiagate scam but Jere insisted there was value in the coach and helped him fight his case by paying the US$6 000 appeal.

Mangwiro also revealed that although he had committed himself to the CAPS United duties, the club was still to offer him a substantive contract.

But it is claims that he was being frustrated from within the CAPS United set-up which seemed to have driven Mangwiro into resigning with the unassuming coach arguing that, “I am better off being with my family than continue to be in a stressful environment where you literally do everything without the support of the executive’’.

Three weeks ago the CAPS United players also took industrial action to try and force the club management to pay them their outstanding bonuses and salaries.

Mangwiro also seems to have fallen out with Makuvire amid indications that the duo’s working relationship had deteriorated.
“I am the biggest loser. I have worked so hard but someone is not content with what I have done to CAPS United.

“He wants me out of the system and he is not happy but I have done my bit. My vision is not working well with some people and the best thing for CAPS United is to bring another person to take over the team,” said Mangwiro.

But Makuvire was yesterday adamant that he had no qualms with Mangwiro and any member of his technical staff.
“I am the project manager and I am in charge of the CAPS United project and the technical department have their duty to ensure we play competitively and win.

“Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose or draw but priority is always on winning.
“As a club our relationship with players is governed by contracts and we are required to honour that and it is sad that because of difficulties that we are experiencing we could not pay them on time but we are running around to ensure that they are paid and CAPS United players are not essentially starved or the poorest in the league,’’ Makuvire said.

The CAPS United chief executive said they had been disappointed by the fact that Mangwiro had “announced his resignation to the media but was still to inform the club’s chiefs by yesterday’’.

“The saddest thing is that we have not received anything formal regarding Tau’s resignation so until we have that we cannot map the way forward.

“We actually expect him to turn up for duty tomorrow and maybe if he has indeed resigned that is when we will know.
“We hope to get a solid position but a lot is still unfolding and I cannot run a club based on what is in the media.

“Of course the news that the coach has resigned has a negative impact on the institution but we need to manage risk and we will respond accordingly when we get confirmation by tomorrow.

“We are also working flat out to ensure we win our next game against Chicken Inn,’’ said Makuvire.
There is no doubting though that the problems at CAPS United appear to be deeper than just the circumstances that forced Mangwiro to walk way and the sooner club president Phiri and his team tackle them head on, without being swayed by a blame game, the better it is for the institution that has built a reputation of being one the three biggest clubs in the country together Dynamos and Highlanders.