Fam faulted on subventions
Super League of Malawi (Sulom) has accused Football Association of Malawi (FAM) of bypassing them by dealing directly with clubs on the issue of K5 million subventions.
Sulom president Fleetwood Haiya expressed the sentiment during the body’s Extraordinary General Meeting on Monday in light of the subventions Super League teams are getting under the Fifa Forward 3 Programme managed by FAM.
He said: “We did ask FAM that we are better-placed to deal directly with the clubs because they are affiliated to us, but for whatever reasons, they insisted on dealing directly with the teams.
“We were not even aware that some teams had not accessed the funds.”
Haiya also said a Sulom request that FAM should consider giving the clubs 60 percent of the subvention as first instalment was turned down.
He said: “Our basis for the request was that clubs need more money now because they have a number of undertakings such as signing-on and registration fees.
“But they [FAM] said the arrangement was 50 percent because that is what they got from Fifa which was in contrast with what we were made to believe that the entire chunk was available.
“Similarly, even club licensing is supposed to be handled by Sulom as league-runners with FAM playing a guiding role.”
But FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka said: “Administratevely, Sulom handled the process because they were responsible for vetting and other things. FAM only wired the funds for transparency and accountability purposes.”
Meanwhile, Sulom says all its 16 clubs have now accessed the first instalment of FAM’s K2.5 million subvention.
As of last week, only three clubs, namely Extreme FC of Mchinji, Ekwendeni Hammers from Mzimba and Mzuzu-based Moyale Barracks had met the set conditions, but as of yesterday, the other 13 teams had also made the grade.
Sulom treasurer Allie Mwachande said in an interview yesterday that all the teams confirmed accessing the funds after meeting the requirements.
He said: “Now, we have to start strategising for the second and final instalment between July and December this year.”
Requirements for accessing funds include proof of a current bank account held in the name of the member association or club, submission of application form signed by two officials, clearly detailing the usage of funds and the value-addition to the development of the game in Malawi.
It also includes signed minutes of executive meetings detailing agreed usage of the funds.
