Two arrested over forged Shield match tickets

Police in Lilongwe on Saturday arrested two people for allegedly being found with estimated 300 forged tickets for the Charity Shield match between Nyasa Big Bullets and Kamuzu Barracks (KB) at Civo Stadium.

Confirming the arrests in an interview yesterday, Lilongwe Police spokesperson Kingsley Dandaula named the suspects as 32-year-old Weston Ganeti and Peter Minofu. Both reside in Blantyre but originally come from Mulanje.

He said they were arrested following a tip.

“From the preliminary information we have, the two travelled all the way from Blantyre to sell the fake tickets, which were in three bundles one of which is estimated to have 100 tickets,” he said.

However, Dandaula said they are yet to charge the two, who are being kept at Lilongwe Police Station, as investigations “on how the tickets were produced and where, are still underway.”

He described the discovery of the fake tickets as a clear indication that forgery of match tickets is a big problem that needs to be rooted out.

“During the Wafawafa Bonanza some people were also arrested for having fake tickets. The big story here is that there are fake tickets at games and we have to step up efforts to end the production,” he said.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) commercial and marketing director Limbani Matola described the production and sale of forged tickets as worrisome.

“It’s sad that we still have enemies of the game. We feel there’s a well-coordinated syndicate behind this. We will work tirelessly with the police to end this malpractice,” he said.

Proceeds of the Charity Shield game, which Bullets won 3-1, will be channelled towards Kachere Rehabilitation Centre in Blantyre. FAM used part of last year’s gate collections to buy patients trolleys, which were donated to Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe. n