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Gate revenue sharing at match venue stopped

Once the second-round of the TNM Super League begins, gate collection sharing among teams will not be done at match venues, but the money will first be deposited into Super League of Malawi’s (Sulom) bank account before being distributed.

According to Sulom treasurer Tiya Somba-Banda, only those that are not involved in club licensing, namely the police, stewards, first-aid officials and ground owners will be given their shares on the spot.

Fans queue to pay for entry into Kamuzu Stadium to watch a game
Fans queue to pay for entry into Kamuzu Stadium to watch a game

This was agreed last weekend during club licensing seminar at the Football Association of Malawi’s (FAM) Chiwembe Technical Centre in Blantyre as a way of enhancing the accountability of gate revenue and ensuring that money does not get into undeserved individuals such as soccer fans.

“In the past, money could grow wings when the sharing process occurred at the match venue because some officials that were entrusted with handling cash for their clubs could sometimes abuse it,” said Somba-Banda.

“But now all that mess is history because we will be depositing the money into Sulom account before being distributed to the teams through their bank accounts.”

Apart from the gate-collection sharing issue, the seminar, which was attended by clubs, regional football associations, National Youth Football Committee (NYFC) and National Women Football Committee (NWFC), also agreed that by September, all Super League clubs should have contracts with their players and that each club should have a youth side by January 2016.

It was also decided that by December 2015, each Super League club must  register under the registrar general to become a legal entity and have constitutions to clear controversies that surround club ownership in the country. For example, at present, over three entities claim to be owners of Big Bullets.

Other rules that have been put in place are that all clubs should offer academic education to all players below the age of 18, clubs to submit audited annul accounts by March 2016, clubs should make sure they pay all debts to players and officials by December 2015, clubs should have offices and at least one staff member and that the printing of match tickets at Kamuzu stadium will be in the hands of SULOM at Kamuzu Stadium, and stadium owners at all other stadiums.

According to Somba-Banda, the development would also help to bring sanity in local clubs where sometimes supporters have powers to fire the technical or administrative panel.

Clubs have welcomed the developments, but they argue the problem would be implementation of the rules by football authorities.

Mighty Be Forward Wanderers’ general secretary Mike Butao, his Civo United counterpart Rashid Ntelera and Azam Tigers’ chairperson Sydney Chikoti said they will go by the agreements for the benefit of their clubs.

“The deliberations were very open and interesting. Clubs have started to embrace the concept now because we have realised that though tough, initially, it will be of great benefit,” said Butao.

But FAM’s transfer matching systems manager Casper Jangale said clubs that will not obey the club licensing rules will get stiff punishments such as bbeing banned from participation in the 2016 football season, fined between K500 000 and K2 million and deducted points.

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