FAM suspends revised gate revenue cut
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has suspended the adjusted TNM Super League clubs’ gate revenue share pending an amendment of its constitution to accommodate the changes.
Super League of Malawi (Sulom) effected a combined 10 percent increase that translated to five percent each for clubs following FAM’s resolution.
The clubs started getting the revised shares from the start of the 2024 season with FAM and Malawi National Council of Sports contributing five percent each.
Confirming the changes in a communication to clubs, Sulom said: “FAM made a commitment that clubs will be getting 30 percent of gate revenue, [from the initial 25 percent].
“The same was effected at the commencement of the season. We have, however, received communication that FAM wishes to align its statues with the current distribution as the gate revenue shares are specifically provided in the FAM Statutes.
“Consequently, starting from Match Week Five, Sports Council and FAM will be getting the five percent and 10 percent allocations, respectively.”
The communication also states that clubs will get their additional five percent shares in arrears once the FAM statutes are amended.
It futher says the target is to have the statutes amended and aligned by the start of the second round.
Sulom vice-general secretary Donnex Chilonga said in an interview yesterday that apart from the issue of statutes, there were also some flaws in the distribution of the gate revenue shares.
He said: “There were anomalies sometimes whereby the additional 10 percent would be deducted from FAM’s share only.
“The other thing is that it looked weird to effect the change without amending the statutes.”
Chilonga also said clubs will not refund the additional five percent cuts they got.
On the other hand, FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka said in an interview yesterday that Sulom was supposed to wait for the amendment of the statutes before effecting the revised shares.
He said: “There was misalignment as Sulom effected th e additional revenur share before the process was concluded.
“So, the way forward is that the allocations for FAM and Sports Council should be maintained until the process is formalised.”
Reacting to the development, FCB Nyasa Bullets chief administration officer Albert Chigoga said “The arrangement, as communicated by Sulom, is excellent because the statutory review needed to precede the implementation of the revised sharing structure.”
Last month, some clubs and an analyst cautioned Sulom to tread carefully on the issue, arguing that the changes remained illegal unless a policy amendment is done.
