Football Association of Malawi (FAM) says it has put in place security and access control measures ahead of the Castel Cup final between FCB Nyasa Bullets and Goshen City Dedza Dynamos at Bingu National Stadium (BNS) on February 21.
FAM operations director Gomezgani Zakazaka in an interview said the measures are aimed at sealing security loopholes noticed in previous cup finals at the venue.
On crowd control, FAM says it is working closely with the two finalists to put in place measures that will maximise fan safety and enjoyment.
“From a crowd control perspective, we will put in place measures to maximise fan experience. We are working with the two teams on crowd management,” he said.
| Bobby Kabango
Zakazaka expressed confidence in the security arrangements, noting that BNS has not recorded any major crowd trouble for the past two years.
“So far, so good. We have not had crowd trouble issues at BNS since December 2023 and we hope to build on those measures to ensure the same on the final,” he said.
FAM’s statement comes after the Castel Challenge Cup semi-final between FCB Nyasa Bullets and Mzuzu City Hammers was marred by crowd trouble at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre last Sunday.
The assocaiation has since charged Bullets and some of its supporters for the incidents.
Zakazaka admitted that one of the major challenges at the BNS is uncontrolled access due to structural vulnerabilities.
“The main issue we have is the leakage at he facility. The stadium is so porous from all angles and a bigger percentage of fans enter free of charge and that creates problems,” he said.
He revealed that FAM is currently engaging stadium authorities to address the weaknesses by closing entry loopholes that have in the past allowed unauthorised access.
Zakazaka said in addition, FAM plans to tighten access control validation at all entry points, especially in the absence of electronic turnstiles at the 40 000-seater facility.
“We are also enforcing access control validation which is the main problem in the absence of electronic turnstiles for such a big stadium. We rely on the human element,” he said.
Traffic congestion has also been identified as a key concern, particularly during high-profile matches that attract large crowds.
Zakazaka said they will collaborate with Lilongwe City Council and the Malawi Police Service to improve traffic flow around the stadium.
Fans have been discouraged from driving to the venue, with only a limited number of vehicles set to be granted entry into the stadium premises to avoid congestion.
“We discourage people from coming in vehicles as very few cars will be given access into the stadium to ensure there is no congestion,” said Zakazaka.
Bullets commercial and marketing manager Kevin Moyo said the club hopes FAM will improve on gate management after disappointing gate revenue during the semi-final against Mzuzu City Hammers.
FAM only produced 2 500 tickets for the 12 000 capacity Kamuzu Stadium with a plan to print more tickets once the initial ones sold out.
“We warned them that the tickets were not enough. But they promised to print more at the venue, only for the company they engaged to fail to do so. People could not access tickets because of this situation which created room for fraud at the gates,” he said.
The match ended up grossing K19 million.
But Zakazaka said this time, they will pre-sale tickets to avoid a repeat of the scenario.
