The management of Plateau United Football Club of Jos has placed the entire team on half salary following their 0-2 loss to Kwara United of Ilorin on Match Day 1 of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).
The Media Officer of the Club, Albert Dakup, in a statement in Lagos, disclosed that the club took the hard stance after the at the new Jos stadium on Sunday, Dec.27.
The statement said the club’s General Manager (GM), Pius Henwan, handed down the directive while addressing players and coaches during which hetold them that they had no excuse whatsoever not to beat their opponents, describing their performance as unacceptable.
“You must recoup the three points in your next away match and until that is achieved, you will remain on half salary,” the statement quoted Henwan as saying.
Henwan lamented that despite the state government’s huge investments on the team, the players were not reciprocating the gesture, warning that anybody who was not ready to work for the collective aspirations of the team, would be shown the way out.
“Plateau United is a big brand in Nigerian football and any of you who is not ready to defend the colours of the club, should just bow out.
“Some of you are injured or sick since we returned from Tanzania but it seems others decided to exclude themselves from training under the guise of been injured. Such indiscipline will not be condoned here and anyone found wanting will be decisively dealt with”, the GM warned.
He directed the technical crew and other backroom staff to close ranks and work as a team to change the fortunes of the club, while expressing confidence in the ability of the head coach, Abdu Maikaba, to deliver.
Henwan assured the head coach that management would continue to give him the maximum support to enable him succeed and that he should take all necessary measures to return the team to winning ways and not to allow negative criticisms from his detractors to deter him.
The head coach, who had earlier described the criticisms against him as unfair and baseless, was quoted by the statement as saying that he was ready to step aside if found to be the problem of the team.
“I have been working hard to give all the players the chance to compete for places in the team. If some players will accuse me of being biased, then the identity of such players be revealed because they are the ones thwarting my efforts to change the fortunes of the team,” Makaiba said.
Plateau United lost 0-2 to Kwara United FC at the New Jos Stadium last Sunday in one of the fixtures of the Week 1 of the NPFL played across the country. (NAN)
