Malawi football secrets Part I

My encounter with this up-and-coming football administrator a fortnight ago was uninspiring.

For a usually an enthusiastic young man with impeccable vision of steering his club to greater heights, all he could offer me were heavy feelings of frustrations. The sort one usually shows when truth has finally given way to reality. It was very uncharacteristic of him.

In short, in his quest to professionalise his modest club, he went out of his way courting past and present big name football administrators hoping to grab a tip or two— only to get a big reality check: that most football administrators are out of depth of their roles but serve for personal gains.

For a principled man who gives education a good name, I am not quite sure that with these frustrations, he will be in football administration in the next two years.

His conclusion was that sizampiranso [officials are not there for footballing reasons]. He just hit the nail on the head. If you want to serve Malawi football there are two things you must expect; either to get rich or to get arrested.

For example, I know that money laundering is the ultimate business most football administrators are in the game for.

They get money behind the scenes and claim that they have loaned out a player to a foreign club. Two years later, the player would still be with the same foreign team and even transfer to another country until all is forgotten.

I know that many players have gone to Mozambican clubs supposedly on loan when in actual fact, money exchanged hands. The officials even go a step further to render players as free agents so that they should, on paper, sign for a song while pocketing the big chunk.

I am not afraid to reveal another evil; that some officials from FAM and Sulom pocket personal cuts from gate collections. This is rampant in cup games.

I know that FAM and Sulom officials travel from Mzuzu and Lilongwe to Blantyre and vice versa and yet get paid over K50 000 (US$135) each for being spectators. This is part of an appeasement policy top officials follow to the letter to safeguard their positions.