7 clubs cough K42.8m in fines in six seasons

Amid financial hurdles facing the football industry, seven TNM Super League clubs have in the past six seasons coughed K42.8 million in fines to FAM and Sulom, Weekend Nation has established.

Silver Strikers, Nyasa Big Bullets, Mighty Mukuru Wanderers, Karonga United, Mafco, Moyale Barracks and Red Lions have paid heavily for the sins of their supporters.

Bullets sit top with K12.2 million, followed by Silver on K9.7 million, Wanderers on K6.2 million, Karonga United on K4.5 million, Moyale Barracks FC on K4.2 million, Red Lions on K3.5 million and Mafco FC K2.9 million.

Due to the clubs financial constraints, ‘Super League of Malawi (Sulom) and Football Association of Malawi (FAM) had to deduct the money from league and cup prizes or gate collections.

Sulom executive member Charles Manyungwa, who is in charge of monitoring gate revenue, said it is high time supporters desisted from acts of violence and hooliganism.

He said: “Violence has no place in modern football and clubs need to be professional.

“Local fans need to protect the interests of their clubs through their conduct. We urge clubs to conduct awareness campaigns, targeting their supporters.”

In most cases, violence at match venues occur because fans have disagreed with decisions decisions against their teams. In some cases, issues of juju have been the cause.

Wanderers board secretary Humphrey Mvula said they are determined to ensure their supporters follow the vision of the club.

He said: “We are in transit from a community club to a commercial entity and we have laid out structures to ensure that our supporters follow a code of conduct.

“We have incorporated two supporters as directors of the club to ensure they transmit and carry the vision of the club to regional and zonal committees. We have had special sessions to sensitise the fans on the need for discipline. We are promoting fair play among our supporters, winning fairly and losing fairly. No room for violence.

“But we understand there are still some supporters who are resisting change and still want to control the club. But we are determined and we won’t bow down until the transition is complete.”

Silver’s head of legal department Chrispine Sibande, who is also one of the club’s directors, admitted that some of the team’s supporters have been a liability.

He said: “We have been having huge problems with supporters because of violence. Not only is it a financial burden, but we also waste a lot of time in disciplinary meetings with FAM or Sulom.

“The image of Silver as a company and that of Reserve Bank of Malawi as our sponsor is at stake. It’s a huge problem.”

The club has since embarked on a plan to reach out to all its supporters in the country with awareness messages on how acts of violence are affecting the club negatively.

“One of the major activities on our calendar this year’s is fans engagement. We want to hammer it home that the club is suffering because of violence at match venues. There is no way we can succeed in our commercialisation drive if of violence continues,” Sibandesaid.

Bullets director responsible for supporters Stone Mwamadi admitted in an interview that fans’ behaviour has been costly to the team.

He said: “We have taken up responsibility as supporters. We have committees at zonal, regional and national level. We work with leaders of these committees to sensitise our supporters on the negative effects of violence to the club.

“Each regional committee takes charge of supporters’ conduct when the team has matches in their respective areas. We have stewards in every hotspot at the stadium to control supporters. The club has suffered enough due to acts of violence.”

Renowned football pundit Charles Nyirenda admitted the problem is huge and that clubs need to change how they manage their affairs.

“Why can’t the clubs change the way they manage affairs. When we say a team is at home, that means issues such as as gate collections and security arrangement fall under the hosts. It doesn’t make sense to let Sulom take charge of security arrangements and when things go wrong, clubs are blamed,” he said.

Nyirenda said the blame can only be apportioned to clubs if they are fully responsible for arranging security for home matches.

He said: “After all, most of what is termed failure to control fans borders on pure criminality by rogue elements who ought to be getting arrested to appear at courts of law to face justice.

“In practical terms, no club is capable of controlling every fan. Rather each individual attending a match should be held liable by the law for acts of violence or disorder as per the law.

“What Sulom ought to do is carry out vigorous civic education campaigns to let fans know their responsibilities and liabilities in the event of creation and perpetration of chaos and they have to be told in no uncertain terms that they stand to face the full wrath of the law should they cause trouble at football matches.”

“If you average that K42.8 million on a yearly basis the rate is nearly K8.8 million. Immediately certain issues come to mind like do teams pay all their fines? How is the money used and is there proper accountability of such funds?

In terms of whether this is a drain on the meagre earnings of the clubs, well, the rates of penalties ought to have been set and ratified by the teams themselves as owners of Sulom.”

available for comment yesterday.

Waya also had a stint as head coach of Tanzania national team.

In 2018, she was part of English netball side Hertfordshire Mavericks technical panel as a shooters’ trainer.

Waya also served as director of netball in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, but the contract expired and director of sports in the ministry, Jameson Ndalama, yesterday said it is in the process of being renewed.

Netball Association of Malawi vice-president Chimwemwe Bakali yesterday said the country is proud to see her heading a technical panel in foreign land.

He added that this is a wake-up call for Malawi to up its game as other countries are studying the Queens’ tactics and investing in the sport.

“This is good for Mary as an individual. Congratulations to her,” Bakali said.

“However, this tells us that countries know they have something to learn from Malawi and it is a wake-up call for us as we are being studied and we need to develop ourselves by moving to other levels. It is clear our colleagues are investing so much in the game and are trying to overtake us. We have a lot of work to do as netball and as a country than dwelling much on petty fights.” Waya was part of the Queens squad at two World Netball Championships, three Commonwealth Games and two World Netball Series, but it was after she inspired the national team to a fifth place finish (Malawi’s highest world ranking) at the 2007 World Netball Cup that she earned global respect.