Efforts to harmonise Malawi football calendar flop
Regional leagues in the South and Centre failed to finish their 2013 season by December 31, a development which will affect efforts by FAM and Sulom to harmonise the football calendar.
Southern Region Football League (SRFL) chairperson Trouble Kalua confirmed in an interview yesterday that they have a long way to go to finish the season.
“We are just eight games into the second round. The target now is to finish by February and start again by April. It has been a challenge running the league since we have had no financial injection from Professor Peter Arthur Mutharika,” said Kalua in a telephone interview from Blantyre.
A stakeholders meeting that FAM organised early this year, which was attended by Sulom and all regional league committees, agreed that regional leagues should finish by end of December.
“Much as we would have loved to finish in time to give our champions enough time to prepare for the Super League, it is simply not possible,” said Kalua.
The Central Region Football League (CRFL), which is sponsored by Chipiku Stores, is also behind schedule. They were supposed to finish in the second week of December.
“We will now finish the league on January 19. We could not meet the deadline because the fixtures were revised because of postponed games. Most players in our league are students and as such we could not hold games midweek as they were at school,” said fixtures secretary Frank Kalilombe.
Abandonment of the game between Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers in Balaka last weekend also means the Super League has failed to finish in time.
Sulom president Innocent Bottomani said the extension of the league due to the events that took place in Balaka will not only affect the calendar, but logistics as well.
“It is not only about the loss of life or putting the game in disrepute, but also the logistic part. When organising a league finale so much is involved in terms of money and planning. It means we have to do it again and that is not fair to the sponsors,” said Bottomani.
