The gate revenue sharing from Saturday’s TNM Super League match between Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe has sparked fresh calls for reforms on gate collection sharing system.
The match saw the two teams getting a meagre K1.7 million each from a gross of K23.8 million with K17. 63 million going towards expenses.
But Super League of Malawi (Sulom) has said it is a wake-up call for the clubs on the need to play a leading role in pushing for reforms.
And while the clubs got K1.7 million each, police got about K3.14 million, K4.63 million went towards tickets, about K1.5 million to a cashiering firm and K1 million to a security firm.
Stadium owners, Ministry of Youth and Sports walked away with about K1.85 million as ground levy.
Sulom pocketed K620 103 while Football Association of Malawi and Malawi National Council of Sports got K310 051 each.
Posting on his Facebook page, lawyer Wapona Kita, who is also one of Wanderers directors, said: “Will Malawi football develop this way? Gross collections K23 millon. Total expenses K17.6million. And the participating teams walk away with only K1.7 million each.
Saturday’s match. I Courtesy
of Mighty Wanderers
“May be it’s time to rethink and reform how gate collections are distributed.”
On his part, Nomads’ chief executive officer Panganeni Ndovi said: “The figures are extremely concerning. We are spending far more than we are collecting at the gate and this trend is not sustainable.
“There is clear evidence of systemic theft within the ticketing process and related schemes and this continues to undermine our revenue.”
He said to address this, there is an urgent need to introduce e-ticketing and pre–match day sales.
“This will close the leakages and ensure full accountability. Otherwise, until we reform the system, these losses will persist,” said Ndovi.
His Silver counterpart Patrick Chimimba had not responded to our questionnaire at press time yesterday.
But Sulom general secretary (GS) Williams Banda said it is time stakeholders, especially teams, took a pro-active approach on the entire gate revenue system.
He said: “They need to be involved at every stage of the process for them to add value because what happened is just a tip of the iceberg because even the gross revenue itself is questionable as it does not reflect the turnout.
“Anyway, the observations are noted and we are equally saddened by the way the match gate revenues have been managed. The matter borders on mindset and approach stakeholders take in the administration of the funds.
“The authorities have a tendency to give a blind eye towards the gate proceeds distribution only to cry over split milk. We need urgent remedial action on this game investigation or forensic.”
The Sulom GS also observed that towards the end of the football season or Chrisrmas, “coordinated theft is observed; hence, we need to rethink the system”.
He suggested that, among others, the stakeholders can agree on the percentage share in accordance to the gross revenue so that teams can benefit.
The first round encounter between the two teams at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre in May this year grossed K40.89 million and the clubs got K9.5 million, translating to 23 percent of the total revenue.
