Malawi National Council of Sports has advised affiliates against taking sports disputes to conventional courts, saying such issues must be dealt with within the associations’ tribunals.
In an interview yesterday, the council’s board chairperson Sunduzwayo Madise said they are considering setting up a sports tribunal where sports associations can refer their cases if they do not trust their own judicial organs.
He said: “Sports is like one family and family disputes are best settled within the setup. That’s why we have the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS], which is an international supreme body established to settle all disputes related to sport through arbitration.
“It’s funny because members of sports associations make the rules and regulations in their constitutions. It is these rules that state that all disputes should not be taken to ordinary courts. But it is also them [sports administrators and personalities] who end up breaking the same rules.
“We would rather see all sports disputes being referred to sports tribunals. Let’s have strong and impartial sports tribunals that are capable of coming up with remedies that will satisfy all parties.”
Madise, a legal scholar, said they had noted that Athletics Malawi, Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) and Football Association of Malawi (FAM) are the affiliates often involved in court disputes.
He said: “We have also noted that apart from contractual issues between coaches and the associations, most of the disputes that end up in court are to do with
elections which is very bad. We do not want association leaders to replicate partisan politicians who are always taking each other to court. That will not do sports any good.”
The council’s stance comes just days after former Northern Region Football Association (NRFA) executive members sued FAM over disputed elections.
Madise, however, said they cannot stop people from taking sports disputes to court.
He said: “We can’t stop anyone from going to court because that is their constitutional right. But what we are saying is this is wrong: “ Maybe it is high time Sports Council sets up a tribunal to look into such disputes. Maybe the associations will have trust in an independent tribunal set up by us instead of their own tribunals. This is something we are seriously looking into.”
FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka in an interview yesterday said their statutes are clear on settling of disputes.
He said: “All football related disputes must never be taken to ordinary courts. Doing so is in breach of not just FAM statutes, but Fifa’s as well.
“We have structures that are capable of solving all football related disputes. We recently established national football tribunal which is the highest judicial organ
responsible for settling all desputes. If someone is not satisfied with this tribunal, they can take up the matter with Sports Council or even CAS.
“But we also can’t stop someone from taking the matter to ordinary court because as Sports Council has put it, it is within their rights. However, there are sanctions and some individuals have in the past been disciplined for taking football matters to court.”
On her part, NAM general secretary Yamikani Khungwa Kauma said they encourage their members to refrain from taking netball disputes to court.
She said: “We believe netball is one family. We believe in settling all netball disputes intenally. There might be differences, but at the end of the day, as members of one family it is only us who can sort out our issues not courts.”
Kauma cited an example of Malawi Queens co-coach Peace Chawinga Kalua, who sued NAM for breach of contract, only to return on the same position even before the case was concluded in court.
