Sulom trashes Moyale match-fixing allegations

Super League of Malawi (Sulom) president Innocent Bottoman has said Moyale coach Nicholas Mhango’s match-fixing allegations had no basis and were unfortunate.

Bottoman was reacting to Mhango’s claims that the way weekend fixtures were planned—in which their close contenders Big Bullets played only one game compared to his team’s two assignments—was tantamount to match-fixing.

Moyale top the log table with 33 points from 16 games. They are a point ahead of Bullets who have a game in hand.

In an interview with Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) after his team held Red Lions to a goalless draw in Zomba on Sunday, Mhango said: “It was not fair for us to play a game more as the situation now means Bullets have an advantage in that they will fight to win their game in hand and that is match-fixing. At the level we have reached, we need to be at par in terms of games played.”

However, Bottoman said logistical challenges forced the league to arrange only one game for Bullets at the weekend.

“The Moyale coach needs to bear in mind that we have a shortage of venues and we also had a Standard Bank Knockout Cup semi-final match at Silver Stadium and the other Central Region teams that Bullets could have played (on Sunday), were all engaged,” Bottoman said yesterday.

But the Moyale coach argued that even in such circumstances, his team would have been comfortable to play one game.

On Saturday, both Bullets and Moyale won their games against Civo United and Chikwawa United by 2-0 margins respectively.