Experts cherish BB’s resilience

Big Bullets’ successful sojourn to the Comoros, which resulted from an aggressive search for sponsorship, has shown that Malawi football can still grow without dependence on government and raises questions why FAM struggles with the Flames.

For a long time Football Association of Malawi (FAM), despite having a bigger platform and complemented with a fully-fledged marketing department, has always relied on government for the national team’s activities.

When government fails to provide funding to FAM, Flames fail to fulfil their assignments and players’ welfare become a bone of contention.

Even junior national teams have missed out on continental tournaments because of lack of funding.

With the odds stuck against them, but armed with determination, Bullets left no stone unturned and consequently secured a partnership with TNM in an SMS promotion, which enabled them to travel to the Comoros last week and will see them raise millions of kwacha for their Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League future fixtures.

Minister of Youth and Sports Grace Chiumia has since said Bullets’ ability to find sponsorship should be a lesson to FAM, Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) and other associations that depend on government alone for survival.

“Bullets have demonstrated to the country that sport institutions, be they clubs or associations can mobilise funding outside government.

“They have shown resilience, discipline and zeal to take part in an expensive tournament like this. The fact that they have managed to secure sponsorship is a lesson to us all,” said Chiumia.

She said sport has potential to sustain itself without government funding if those in positions of leadership are visionary.

FAM general secretary Suzgo Nyirenda, however, denied that his association is a failure. He attributed their situation to the public’s failure to respond to national causes.

“It is us who first tried this concept of SMS promotions, but the pubic did not respond well. It is not like we failed. People are talking a lot, but let us wait and see how Bullets fare. We are yet to see if the promotion is a success or not, but I should say here that we wish Bullets all the best,” said Nyirenda.

In 2009, FAM launched an SMS campaign to raise money for Afcon qualifiers, but the initiative flopped due to what many believed was poor publicity.

However, according to TNM marketing manager Madalitso Jonazi, the Bullets SMS campaign is going on well and the least they can make is K30 million.

“So far, so good, the first draw will be on February 24, the response looks good. This means we can go as far as K100 million or more, depending on the participation of the people, but the minimum is K30 million,” said Jonazi.

Reputed marketer and sports personality, Wilkins Mijiga, also believes that sports should be self-sustaining because it has a great following. He also said FAM and other institutions such as Sulom should borrow a leaf from Bullets.

Mijiga said the fact that Bullets have started with a win will mean more revenue for them.

“Success attracts investment as everyone wants to be associated with success. I believe Bullets will now be able to raise more funds because people will want to support them because they have started well,” he said.

He said some of the companies that sponsor football in Zambia also exist here, but the puzzle is why they do not sponsor the sport here.

Mijiga, however, suspected that the situation in Malawi could sometimes be a result of lack of trustworthy sports administrators.

He said he was part of the organising committee of the recent Blantyre Mayor’s Charity Shield from which he had some painful experience.

“We were nearly beaten up because we wanted the money raised to go towards the intended purpose. Many hands wanted to have a share of the money despite that they were the intended beneficiaries. We have to remove this kind of people in our institutions if we are to convince companies to invest,” said Mijiga.

Silver Strikers chairperson MacDonald Mafuta-Mwale said he was always amazed that Bullets have been struggling to finance themselves yet they have a huge fan-base.

“If we had a large fan-base like Bullets we could have been somewhere else by now. The determination of the current Bullets executive is what is needed by all stakeholders in football, including FAM. It is a big lesson to FAM and other sports association,” said Mafuta- Mwale.