Crisis at Big Bullets, executive steps down

Malawi’s football powerhouse Big Bullets FC has been thrown in fresh turmoil following the resignation of the entire executive committee.

The decision comes after a serious fallout with the team’s main supporters committee and the board of trustees.

Both club chairperson Malinda Chinyama and general secretary Higger Mkandawire confirmed throwing in the towel on Thursday.

“We have had enough of the supporters and the trustees and we could not take it any more. There is no way the whole club chairperson can be summoned to a meeting by a mere supporters’ committee chairperson.

“I cannot be accountable to the supporters committee. Let them run the show. We are in the process of making handovers. Time will be the best judge,” said Chinyama.

It all started when the supporters summoned the executive committee to a meeting on Wednesday but only Mkandawire showed up at Shire Highlands Hotel in Limbe.

According to Chinyama and Mkandawire, the supporters and the trustees had already planned their removal.

Said Mkandawire: “The issues on the agenda of the meeting included team performance, gate collections and players welfare, but it took a sudden twist, when they started asking about club’s finances.

“They also queried why the executive does not show up for meetings whenever they are summoned. The supporters committee chairperson [Geoff Mbalati] then recommended that we should be suspended but I said there was no basis for them to suspend us as if we were employed.

“Then, a heated argument ensued and the supporters demanded our resignation to which we accepted after consulting my chairperson.”

He said they had taken that decision to avoid being seen as if they were clinging to these positions.

“So, we have indeed stepped down and we have left the running of the club to the trustees and the supporters.”

Mkandawire also accused trustees secretary Kinnah Phiri of being behind the plot to oust them.

“We know that it is Kinnah who has been orchestrating all this from behind the scenes. Now, we are saying let the trustees and the supporters run the team,” he said.

While dismissing Mkandawire’s claims, Kinnah refused to comment on the issue and referred Weekend Nation to trustees chairperson James Busile, who accused the team’s leadership of not being accountable.

“We [trustees] called for the meeting after getting concerns from the players that they were not getting their game bonuses and we wanted to get an explanation from the executive committee because it is only a couple of weeks ago when we got another tranche of sponsorship from Carlsberg Malawi.

“Unfortunately, apart from Mkandawire, the rest of the executive committee shunned the meeting and this did not go down well with the main supporters committee who demanded their removal,” said Busile.

Asked if the trustees had accepted the executive committee’s decision to resign, Busile said: “Well, these people were chosen by the supporters and if the supporters are saying they do not want them, then what else can we do?

“But we expect them to make proper handovers and account for the sponsorship money before they bow out.”

Apart from Busile and Kinnah, the other trustee that attended the meeting was Fred Kwacha.

As we went to press, team captain Fischer Kondowe had called for an emergency meeting with his charges.