Nine Months Unpaid Salaries: Heartland players blast management, insist on "No Pay, No Play"

By Our Reporter                                

PLAYERS Nigeria Professional Football League side, Heartland FC of Owerri have insisted that they would not back down from their plan not to train or kick the ball until they make their demands known to the Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma.

The players also blasted the club's management led by Promise Nwachukwu over plans to serve them warning letters for act of indiscipline, our impeachable source revealed.

"Things have gone sour in the team as the challenge the players face is the antics the Nwachukwu management have now devised, which was to make the players forget about the five months salary arrears owed them,” begins one of the players who desn’t want his name in print.

 

"They question is why was he purporting lies misinforming the Imo people on radio and television sports programmes that the players are been owed four months salaries instead of nine.

 

"For the records, Promise Nwachukwu was the Coordinator of Heartland when Ifeanyi Chukudi was General Manager, and they had prepared the five months salary arrears voucher owed a few of the player for payment. Now, he claims that no NPFL club paid players during the Covid-19 first wave of the pandemic and lockdown, which is not true.

 

"The players have urged Nwachukwu to speak the truth by going back to the press and tell Imo people that a backlog of 9 months, 6 months and 4 months salaries are been owed them by the management of Heartland.

 

"By right, the players were to be ones to serve the management a warning letter for poor handling of their welfare and not the latter. The players affirmed that the letters are not meant for them as the management could go ahead to serve their family members such notice."

 

They blasted the Nwachukwu leadership of the club off being a failure, as they had breached the contract terms they signed with the players.

 

"Nwachukwu has now termed the player indiscipline, he forgot that the players have every right to protest as the League Management Company(LMC) states that a player becomes a free agent if he's owed more than two or three months salaries by his club,” another player said.

 

Speaking further, "Key members of the Supporters Club also met with the team on Wednesday to discuss on the way forward but the players insisted that they won't back down as they all questioned why they (the Supporters Club) who regarded themselves as true fans were coming when things have gone sour."