BY FORTUNE MBELE

FC PLATINUM coach Norman Mapeza is not happy with the composition of his squad as they head to another Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League campaign and has warned that the team needs to add quality.

The 2019-20 Caf Champions League kicks off in just under a month with preliminary games set to start on the weekend of August 9-11.

But once the club of choice in recent years for local players due to their generous wages, things have drastically
changed at FC Platinum amid reports that they are failing to convince key players whose contracts end this month, to
stay.

“We need to have (good) players. In August the Champions League starts and if we are going to start in this situation, I can foresee disaster,” Mapeza said.

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The Moyo twins Kelvin and Elvis are away in South Africa and are reportedly on the verge of joining Chippa United, while Ali Sadiki and Godknows Murwira have not been part of the squad of late with the latter said to be close to a return to Dynamos this month.

“It is always difficult. We are in mid-season now and if you look at the majority of the players they all have contracts which run to the end of December. We will keep looking around and if we find some players who are free and want to join us then we will have to make some deals,” Mapeza said.

Injuries have also rocked the squad so much that they only had 13 players available for their match against Manica Diamonds last week. This week, they managed to assemble a full squad for their match against Highlanders on Sunday, which
ended in a 1-1 draw. But three of the players in the final squad were youngsters Hagiazo Magaya, Keith Madera and Panashe Matimbanyoka, who were making their premier league debut.

FC Platinum, for all their dominance on the local front, have struggled in the African Safari and failed to go beyond the first round in their last participation this year.