FAM faulted on Babatunde citizenship bid

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has come under criticism for enticing Nigerian Nyasa Big Bullets striker Babatunde Adepoje to obtain Malawian citizenship to play for the Flames.

The association is pushing to have the striker play for the Malawi national football team following his impressive performance.

But soccer analyst David Kanyenda, who is a lawyer, said naturalising the player for the sake of playing for the Flames is wrong.

He said: “Flames is for Malawians. This is non-negotiable. I totally oppose the idea of naturalisation of foreigners for purposes of playing for Flames. It’s a big no for me! I want to win with Malawian players who have at least a biological connection with the country. I would rather lose with Malawian players than win with foreigners masquerading as locals. I don’t want Babatunde anywhere near my Flames. Spare us that indignity please.”

The former Mighty Wanderers general secretary said naturalising foreigners to play for the Flames undermines FAM’s youth development programmes.

Kanyenda said: “It’s an indictment of their youth development structures. More like they are admitting failure to groom local talent. And even upon being approached Baba cannot turn down Flames offer. He’s struck gold and he will happily accept to play for Malawi because he has no chance to play for his mother country Nigeria at all.

“Better select and groom Zebron Kalima (Silver Strikers) or Nyasa Big Bullets’ Lanjesi Nkhoma or other youthful locals or pursue the likes of Kieran Ngwenya, who have direct and clear Malawian roots. We should never encourage the FA to take shortcuts by undermining local talent.

“If they want taller players then let the development structures scout for players with such physical qualities.”

For the foreigner to be granted Malawi citizenship he would have to pay an application fee of K16 million.

Kanyenda wondered who would pay for Babatunde’s application fee since its FAM pushing for it.

He said: “It will be totally wasteful expenditure if the FA is intending to foot that bill. I’d rather they invest the substantial amount into Development structures or other needy areas such as coaching and refereeing.”

Former Flames striker Esau Kanyenda while acknowledging that naturalisation of player is common in football, questioned if Malawi needs to do that.

“This is what other countries have been practising…But does this signify that we have a shortfall of strikers in Malawi?” Esau wondered.

Babatunde played for Masters Security upon his arrival in the country in 2015 before joining Wanderers in 2019 after the striker helped the defunct side to win the Carlsberg Cup.

The Nigerian was off-loaded at Wanderers at the expiry of his contract late last year and opted to join Bullets where helped them win the Airtel Top 8 Cup after scoring eight goals in three matches.

He scored four of the goals in the 4-1 victory over Wanderers to win the Golden Boot as well as Player of the Tournament.