Four teams fail to meet deadline on club licensing
Four teams— Azam Tigers, Epac FC, PremierBet Wizards and newly-promoted Chitipa United—are on the verge of being kicked out of the Super League for failing to meet yesterday’s deadline of submitting club licensing documents.
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) had set close of business yesterday as the cut-off point for submissions.
Asked on the way forward, FAM club licencing system manager (CLS) Casper Jangale said: “These clubs have done literally nothing and it means they will not be vetted by the First Instance Body (FIB) and if they so wish, then they will have to file an appeal to the Appeals Committee to justify why their delay which goes with a K100 000 fee.
“We have to set a precedence and take a hardline on those that have failed to meet the requirements. It cannot be business as usual because we will not be taken seriously,” said Jangale.
The teams that submitted the CLS documents yesterday were champions Kamuzu Barracks, Silver Strikers, Masters Security, Mafco FC, Blue Eagles and Blantyre United. The others—Dwangwa United, Mzuzu University (Mzuni) FC, Be Forward Wanderers, Nyasa Big Bullets and Moyale Barracks—had already submitted theirs before yesterday’s deadline.
On his part, Wizards owner Peter Mponda said they only started the process on Tuesday and they are hoping to be given grace period.
Chitipa general secretary Marshall Mwenechanya said being a new team, “we needed more time to fulfil some of the requirements and we hope the authorities will understand our situation.”
Among other requirements, clubs are supposed to have a youth team and a clear developmental programme; infrastructure which requires a club to have a training base and match venue; administrative personnel which incorporates player contracts and technical staff qualifications.
This, according to Jangale, forms the bedrock as it also includes having a secretariat with at least one full-time employee [which could be an administrator or accountant or even both].
“Player contracts are mandatory and this year we have set CAF A licence as minimum requirement for a technical director, CAF B licence for a head coach and CAF C licence for an assistant coach.”
The fourth criteria is financial and aims at promoting financial transparency, prudence and accountability.
“Clubs need to produce audited financial accounts and transact via banks,” said Jangale.
The fifth criteria incorporates ownership and control.
