FAM gives up Afcon pledges

 Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has given up chase for the K18 million that some companies and individuals owe the Flames in unfulfilled pledges ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Cameroon in January last year.

FAM first vice-president Jabber Alide, who also headed the Afcon Resource Mobilisation Taskforce meant to address the Flames’ insufficient funds for the continental showpiece, yesterday said they are no longer interested to pursue the defaulters almost a year after the national football team competed at the Afcon finals.

The task force organised the Kuipatsa Moto Flames Golf Tournament at Lilongwe Golf Club, the VVIP Dinner at the Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe and the ‘Ipatse Moto Flames and Win’ Promotion to raise at least K154 million, which was a deficit on the Flames K525 million Afcon budget.

However, they collected K130 million out of the K148 million that was pledged. Most of the defaulters were those that made the pledges at the VVIP Dinner, which President Lazarus Chakwera hosted, and the golf tournament.

The association tried to ‘name and shame’ the defaulters but had a sudden change of heart by just issuing several reminders and trying to engage them. In spite of that, most are still non-committal on the fulfilment.

Alide said: “We tried to reach out to all those that pledged with some paying less than what they promised and others not paying at all.

“However, we just thought it was better to just give up to avoid scaring off well-wishers, who we might still need in future fundraisers. They made the pledges voluntarily and forcing them could do more harm on our activities tomorrow. We just have to let the sleeping dogs lie.”

He added that they have also accepted to move on because they understand the economic crises the country is going through due to a number of factors, including Covid-19

FAM finance and administration director Christopher Mdolo yesterday said since they got K15 million out of the K33 million outstanding pledges as of April 2022, defaulters have been non-committal on their promise.

“Nothing has changed since that time; meaning the outstanding pledges have remained the same,” he said.

However, soccer analyst and marketing expert George Kaudza Masina said unfulfilled pledges affect budgets and it not on for people to make pledges they know they cannot fulfil.

He said some people make pledges just to gain mileage and show-off, especially at big events, such as the VVIP dinner and golf tournaments, disregarding the damage they cause to fundraising initiatives.

“It is also high time, fundraising initiatives realised that not all pledges translate to fulfilment,” he said.

At the Afcon finals, the Flames reached the round of 16 for the first time before being knocked out by Morocco following a 2-1 loss.

For reaching the round of 16, FAM pocketed $250 000 (about K250 million at current rate) with the players sharing 50 percent.