The Glamour Boys bowed out in the semi finals of the Champions League after going down to TP Mazembe and had been guaranteed to pocket US$380 000 but last week they learnt from the Confederation of African Football (Caf) that some of the money will go towards television production costs.
Before handing over the windfall, CAF would have deducted US$150 000 for local production house Mighty Movies, which is owned by journalist Supa Mandiwanzira.
This will leave Dynamos with US$230 000 to be shared equally with the players who stand to get US$115 000.
Dynamos’ Champions League squad is composed of 25 players and each player is expected to pocket US$4 600.
The club has already received US$100 000 which is part of the prize money that was deposited in the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) account sometime in December last year before being forwarded to DeMbare. The money is yet to be disbursed as the players and the club awaits the remainder of the funds from Caf who have given them the breakdown of the funds and debts to be settled.
Olive Manyau, the Dynamos secretary general confirmed that the total prize money from CAF was US$380 000 but said a substantial chunk will be gobbled by the live television production costs.
Caf gives the first option for the live coverage of the Champions League matches to the national broadcaster which will then cover the matches without levying the clubs in return for a free feed of the match to air on their channel in their country.
But Caf’s agents, France based Sportfive, have strict specifications related to the quality of the production given that they would be beaming the signal to other countries across the world.
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They have certain minimum requirements which they want guaranteed by the national broadcaster failure of which the job is passed to some private companies that have been doing business with both Caf and Sportfive in the past. That was the case in Zimbabwe where ZBC was ditched.
“In this case Mighty Movies were contracted to cover all our matches and as a club we are now supposed to pay US$150 000 as production costs. This is not for an individual’s benefit but for the club,” Manyau said.
In the past they have been reports that the proceeds from the Champions League were misappropriated by club executives with the players getting the crumbs.
“This time around before we start the campaign it has to be made loud and clear that at one stage we have to pay for live coverage production costs. I say so because at sometime stage people will not understand it at all,” Manyau said.
The development that the substantial chunk of the prize money will be chewed by productions costs will not be sweet music ears to the players, who had successfully negotiated with the executive for sharing the prize money.
The players signed an agreement with the executive last year before it was lodged with Zifa. The players will kick themselves for negotiating a 50 percent stake in the prize money without taking into consideration the costs of live television production costs.
