Fans’ Facebook outburts
Last week, FAM’s official Facebook page was flooded with insults after the Flames mediocre performance against Chad. Below are some of the comments that were posted and some of which were later deleted:
“Mimba zake zimenezi angathamange?”
wrote one fan, referring to a picture of Flames players lined up while singing the national anthem. Another reads:”Mphale zake zimene zija nde mungawine? Koma kudya zankhwiru m’mahotela basi, mimba ziri nguu, kenaka n’kujambulitsa pa swimming pool ngati muchita zeni-zeni.”
Reacting to FAM’s plea for a ceasefire on insults, one fan commented: Ha ha ha! We can stop the insults only if the team is winning. Mind you, the team is using our tax.”
Yes, the Flames were out of sorts and escaped elimination from the 2015 Afcon campaign by the skin of their teeth, but come on guys, at least they got the result and scraped through when others such as Zimbabwe, Liberia and Libya were booted out. Don’t they still deserve a pat on the back for coming out bruised, but triumphant?
In the end, the aggregate score was 3-all and if it were politics, surely Chad would have been justified to demand a ‘recount,’ but this is football, the Flames got the result. The focus now should switch to offering constructive advice to the coaching panel on the need to work on the technical and tactical frailities. Now it is about encouraging the team to give something extra against Benin in the final preliminary round to avoid two years of painful isolation from international football.
The Flames have only been to the Nations Cup finals twice, but so what? One might ask, after all Tiger Woods hasn’t won a major title since 2008; Liverpool haven’t won the English Premiership in 24 years, Big Bullets have not won the Super League for a decade now and, oh by the way, Arsenal needed nine years to find a way to win a trophy again?
Interestingly, for all their trail of under-achievement, the fans have remained loyal to the Flames and one gets this feeling that the more they struggle the stronger the special bond, which connects them to their fans, grows. But it is about Flames proving that when they are out there in the hotels in foreign land, all they think about is not just ordering ‘rice, cattle and vegetation’, but also giving the best shot for the cause of Malawi. Glory be to God.Uloliwe…Uloliwe wayidudula hii…Neng’asiza [The train is pushing].
