Gate revenue sharing system under review
Malawi National Council of Sports’ task force formed to investigate gate revenue fraud has said it will expand its scope to review how the revenue is shared by stakeholders.
Task force chairperson Dr Richard Nyirongo, who is also Sports Council board member, confirmed in an interview yesterday that apart from the issue of gate revenue fraud, they will also come up with the best way of sharing the revenue.
He said this follows concerns from football clubs who feel short-changed by the current set up where they get 25 percent each, stadium owners get 25 percent, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and Super League of Malawi (Sulom) each get 10 percent while Sports Council gets five percent.
Nyirongo said: “There is no prescription as to what we can or cannot discuss regarding the issue of gate revenue. We believe the issue of gate revenue sharing cannot be separated from the discourse we are having.
“We want to understand how that gate sharing system was put in place, how those percentages came into being. We will certainly look into all that and make recommendations.”
The task force is expected to meet the Super League clubs this weekend to have their input to the recommendations which will be submitted to Sports Council.
Nyirongo said the club’s concerns on the gate revenue sharing are valid, considering that the current sharing system is outdated since running of football has changed across the world.
He said: “Clubs want the gate sharing revenue system to change. So, why not hearing from them? You cannot appear to be conservative when times have changed.
“The running of the clubs has changed. If it’s in the interest of stakeholders, then we need to tackle that issue and we will make suggestions.”
The clubs last month met Sulom and proposed that Sports Council and FAM should stop getting a share of the revenue.
A representative of the clubs, Nyasa Big Bullets chief administration officer Albert Chigoga said they will maintain their stand that FAM and Sports Council should not get a share of the revenue.
He said: “In our previous meeting with Sulom we made it clear that FAM and Sports Council should not get a share of the gate revenue.
“We want their share to be distributed to clubs. We also want clubs, just like gate management firms, to get their 25 percent from the gross and not the net.”
Sports Council formed the task force in July following a spate of gate fraud at the stadia, which led to arrests and convictions of six individuals.
Besides Nyirongo, the other members of the task force are Ministry of Sports director of Jameson Ndalama, FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda, Sulom treasurer Malinda Chinyama, Kamuzu Stadium manager Ireen Mkoko, Nation Publications Limited sports editor Garry Chirwa and Sports Council acting executive secretary Shephord Boma and representaives from the Treasury, the Local Government as well as Malawi Police Service.
Sports Council board chairperson Sunduzwayo Madise gave the task force August 30 deadline to submit its report.
However, Madise yesterday said in statement that he had extended the deadline to September 21.
The statement reads in part: “The chairperson of the task force, Councillor Dr. Richard Nyirongo requested that the deadline given to the Task force be extended by 15 days to complete consultations with key stakeholders, especially with representatives of Super League clubs, who are usually occupied with their league fixtures.
“Suffice to state that councillor Dr. Nyirongo has been updating me and I can state that a lot of progress has been made. This statement is, therefore, to inform all stakeholders that the much-awaited report from the task force has been delayed.
“I would like to, however, assure all stakeholders that Sports Council has an internal deadline of 21 September 2022 to ensure that the report is completed and all attendant due processes adhered to facilitate its release.”
