Bullets, 8 others fail to make the grade
At least nine Super League clubs, including giants Nyasa Big Bullets and champions Kamuzu Barracks (KB), have failed to obtain licences for participation in the 2017 season after falling short of the required club licensing benchmarks.
First Instance Body (FIB) scrutinised club licensing submissions of all the 16 Super League teams last weekend but Mzuni FC (49 percent), Big Bullets (47), KB (45), Civo United/Epac (40), Chitipa FC (39), Masters Security (39), Blantyre United (38), Azam Tigers (36) and PremierBet Wizards (two) could not make the grade.
According to Football Association of Malawi (FAM) club licensing manager Casper Jangale, the clubs have until Friday to put their houses in order or risk going through the appeals committee.
To qualify for full licences, the clubs needed to acquire the 70 percent mark in each of the five licensing criteria, namely sporting, infrastructure, personnel and administration, legal and financial.
When asked how serious would FAM be on ensuring only those that make the grade contest in the 2017 season considering that such arrangement hardly worked out last season, Jangale said: “We will not entertain excuses. The onus is on the clubs to meet the requirements or risk being left out. We will only work with the compliant clubs in 2017.”
In spite of that, four clubs, namely Be Forward Wanderers, Blue Eagles, Dwangwa United and Moyale Barracks have nothing to worry about as they have been granted full licences. Wanderers top the list with 78 percent followed by Eagles and Dwangwa on 75 percent apiece and Moyale (72).
Red Lions (66), Silver Strikers (60) and Mafco (52) have acquired provisional licences, but have to reach the 70 percent mark soon after the league’s first round.
Clubs that have failed the test said yesterday they will try to meet the requirements by Friday.
“I have not seen the communication on the results of our submission. However, should that be true, it would not be surprising because we all know what has been happening in our fold for the past few months, during which we were to fulfil a number of documentation to FAM for club licensing,” said Bullets administrator MacWard Themba.
“Most office-bearers we tasked for such assignments either resigned or were new and could not complete the tasks. We are aware of the shortfall and we are working towards finalising the documentation this week.”
Wizards owner Peter Mponda, whose side has obtained the lowest marks and is the only side yet to submit the documents, said: “It is strange that we got two percent. For the good of the game, we will inquire from FAM to let us know where we need to improve.”
Chitipa FC general secretary Marshall Mwenechanya said their set back is their home ground Karonga Stadium since it is not yet up to standard to host matches. n
