FAM defends RVG on coaches
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has defended Flames coach Ronny van Geneugden’s (RVG) move to appoint his backroom staff , including junior national teams’ coaching panels without the endorsement of the technical subcommittee.
FAM president Walter Nyamilandu yesterday said the issue was raised during a consultative meeting with heads of affiliates, FAM executive committee members, and representatives of the National Football Coaches Association (NFCA) and FAM Technical Subcommittee in Mzuzu on Saturday.
The issue comes in the wake of concerns raised by members of the technical subcommittee and NFCA who questioned RVG’s powers to appoint his assistants as well as junior national teams’ coaching panels, arguing that he was only a FAM employee.
Said Nyamilandu: “The issue was indeed raised, but we clarified on the appointments and it was well understood that the best practice around the world is that the head coach appoints his backroom staff.
“This has been the case with Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola etc. It was, therefore, important for FAM to normalise the situation by giving a chance to the coach to appoint a backroom staff of his choice, having worked and interacted with several coaches for a year.”
The FAM president also said to that effect, the NFCA has withdrawn its letter of protest.
“But the coach has since been urged to work closely with the NFCA with the view to build capacity of local coaches. Special programmes have been drawn to mentor the coaches and understudy him through training programmes and apprenticeship with the national team,” he said.
However, when he was contacted for comment yesterday, NFCA chairperson Stuart Mbolembole said he was in a meeting and would call back, but he had not done so by press time.
NFCA general secretary Dave Mpima and publicity secretary Aubrey Nankhuni said they did not attend the meeting and were waiting to be briefed by Mbolembole.
Said Mpima: “He is yet to brief me on the outcome of the meeting and once he does that, I will definitely come back to you with our official position.”
FAM Technical Subcommittee chairperson James Mwenda, who is also the association’s vice-president, said he could not comment because he did not attend the meeting.
“I am away in Swaziland where I was commissioning a CAF Champions League match and, therefore, I could not attend both the executive and consultative meetings,” he said.
On his part, RVG said: “After the consultative meeting, I was called by the president [Nyamilandu] and he outlined to me the expectations from the other stakeholders. That is all I can say, otherwise there wasn’t much.” n
