FAM defies CAF, Fifa club licensing rules
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has for the first time since 2015 set aside Fifa’s club licensing requirement and allowed the TNM Super League to kick off without the mandatory eligibility checks.
Fifa, in its rules and regulations states that club licensing is mandatory for national leagues and that it is member association’s obligation as licenser to ensure full cooperation.
The regulations read: “Club licensing is a key element in promoting the professionalisation of football all over the world. The system uses principles-based criteria and sets minimum standards that clubs must satisfy in order to be licensed and, consequently, be able to participate in a given competition.”
Confederation of African Football (CAF) in its club licensing regulations also stresses that “The implementation of the Club Licensing Procedure must be respected by all CAF Member Associations”.
But three weeks into the season, FAM’s club licensing first instance body (FIB) is yet to complete licensing of clubs which is a requirement set by Fifa for them to be eligible to participate in competitions.
FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda in an interview yesterday said the association has powers to supersede the Fifa requirement.
He said: “It has to be understood from the onset that FAM is the licensor and has the powers to see to it that football is being played. In this case, a number of factors were considered and noted that the season could start even before fully licensing the clubs. The important thing to note is that the submissions process was completed and it’s only the review of documents submitted which is being completed.”
Clubs that fail to be licensed are prohibited from participating in the TNM Super League and other competitions.
But Gunda ruled out the possibility of barring teams that will not meet the minimum requirements.
This year FAM has introduced Club Licensing Online Platform (Clop) which CAF and Fifa took a whole year to train its members on how to implement.
FAM also organised several workshops to orient TNM Super League clubs on the implementation of Clop.
However, Gunda said they still faced challenges in migrating from paper-based to online system.
He said: “Indeed CAF introduced the online process under Clop in 2022. Two workshops at continental level have taken place; one in 2022 and another in 2023. CAF is in the process of holding workshops with member associations. Malawi had its turn in November 2023.”
Apart from the Clop glitches, Gunda said the FAM executive committee also had to appoint the new club licensing first instance body which is now led by private practice lawyer Davis Njobvu to replace the old one whose mandate ended in December.
However, football analyst Patrick Zgambo said FAM’s excuses are not convincing
