Government demands Flames, Queens sponsorship details

Government has demanded sponsorship specifications from Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) to avoid duplication of funding.

Sports Council executive secretary George Jana said having secured sponsorship for the Flames and Queens from Carlsberg Malawi Limited and Airtel Malawi respectively, there is need for the two associations to submit detailed cash flow.

“As it is now, it will be difficult for government to release funding for the national football and netball teams unless they provide us with detailed information about the amount of sponsorship from their respective sponsors and the specifications on which programmes they would commit the funding to,” said Jana.

He said he already relayed the information to the two associations, but they are yet to respond.

“They need to clearly outline how much the corporate sponsor will contribute and when, and crucially, what they will get in return. There is need for transparency, the associations need to make full disclosure,” he said.

Jana also queried as to why the two associations are according the limelight to their corporate sponsors while shadowing government support.

“For instance, during the recent game against Chad, Carlsberg enjoyed perimeter advertising and there was no government recognition. Maybe it is about the perception that it is government obligation,” he said.

But FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda contradicted Jana, saying FAM already provided the Carlsberg sponsorship cash flow for this year.

“The breakdown is that we got K50 million for this year and we will get K100 million each for the next two years and we submitted our [K75 million] budget to government through Sports Council for the Chad games,” explained Nyirenda.

“That is why we asked government to consider topping up the K25 million deficit because we already had K50 million from Carlsberg and that is why they [government] gave us K20 million,” he said.

The FAM CEO also said when presenting budgets for the next two years, they will factor in the K200 million sponsorship from Carlsberg as well as the sponsorship contract.

Responding to the council’s query on recognising government’s contribution, Nyirenda said: “Then we will have to sit down with council and find out in what form government would want the recognition for its support.”

NAM general secretary Carol Bapu said they were unable to give Airtel Money sponsorship specifications to council because they were yet to receive communication from Airtel on funding for camping.

Queens travel arrangements are expected to be handled by the Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC).

Airtel Money committed about K25.6 million annualsponsorship for the Queens for three years from last year.