On the opening day of the 27th match day of the Ethiopian Premier League Wolkite Ketema played against Ethiopia Bunna. The capital city club came out 4-0 winners in an utterly dominant performance. This was the 7th loss in a row for struggling Wolkite Ketema who only fielded Mesay Paulos, Medin Teklu and Wondimagegn Maereg from the last match day. The reason for that is the absence of many players who didn’t get salary for 5 months.
A young Wolkite side fielded vs Ethiopia Bunna after many senior players refused to play– pic via EPSC
In his post-match interview with Super Sport Wolkite coach Mulugeta Mihret was visibly disappointed. “It is a painful situation. I don’t know why the fans chose to be quiet “he said.
Mulugeta also mentioned the fact that there are so many investors based in Wolkite who can help the team but aren’t doing anything so far. He expressed his frustration with the management and called for a change in how the work is being undertaken.
Ethiopian Football Federation has sent a warning to the club and several others because player salaries aren’t being paid on time. However, the problems still persist.
In order to tackle this dire situation, the Premier League Share company has recently proposed a limit to the amount of money clubs can spend on salaries. For next season clubs will only be allowed to spend 52 million birr on salaries and 5 million on incentives.
It is remains to be seen whether this solution can bring a permanent change. But as things stand the clubs are barley hanging on.
