National Sports

Malawi only country out of CAF club tourneys

Malawi is the only country in southern Africa whose football teams do not take part in the two continental competitions organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The development is a confirmation of the financial constraints the local game is going through .

The last time a Malawian team participated in a continental competition was in 2004 when Bakili Bullets [now Big Bullets] took part in the CAF Champions League and reached the group stages.

FAM, Sulom and analysts have since said the development is a setback for Malawi football.

According to the 2012 CAF Champions League and CAF Confederations Cup records, Malawi is the only country among the 15 countries in the Sadc region that is not taking part in either of the two tournaments.

Further to that, Malawi is among only eight of the 53 African CAF member-associations without teams in the two competitions.

The eight include five minnows of African football — Mauritania, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Sao Tome. Sao Tome as the highest ranked among them at 168 in the world while Malawi is ranked 99. The other two are Libyan clubs which are out due to political instability in their country while Togolese clubs are banned.

While local teams fail to join such competitions, teams from lowly ranked countries such as Comoros, Seychelles, Mauritius, Lesotho and Swaziland participate every year.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu said while the development is sad and humiliating, the football fraternity is helpless due to lack of corporate world backing.

“I feel embarrassed when I go for Cosafa or CAF meetings and hear fellow officials discussing how their respective teams are faring in continental competitions.

“We can’t join the competitions because we don’t have sound financial backing. Our clubs are even struggling to source enough funding to compete locally which is just a drop in the ocean compared to expenditure in CAF tournaments.

“The situation will not change until the private sector comes in. In the past Bullets, Wanderers, MDC, Azam Tigers used to participate because of sound sponsorship which is no longer the case now. The economic climate is very difficult now,” he said.

Super League of Malawi (Sulom) president Innocent Bottomani said considering the set-up of Malawi clubs CAF tournaments participation is a non starter.

“Clubs don’t have structures to raise enough funds on their own at the moment in the absence of sponsors. As Sulom we are developing a structure to enable us, FAM, government and our sponsor to try and come up with a fund to sponsor our champions every year,” he said.

Silver Strikers chairman Dr. MacDonald Mafuta-Mwale, whose team is eligible to take part in next year’s Champions League tournament said even for a team that has sound sponsorship like his, it is still difficult to join the continental competitions.

Silver are the highest sponsored team with a budget of K35 million (about $210 000) but they fail to join CAF events despite qualifying three times in the past four years.

“We struggle to get adequate funding for the local season as sponsors always cut our budget and we don’t even bother asking for CAF sponsorship because it’s so huge,” he said.

According to FAM, for a team to play home and away in the tournament it costs more than K20 million (about $120 000). The CAF tournaments have three preliminary rounds and this translates to over K60 million (about $400 000).

Then there are six group stage matches, which translates to a budget of over K200 million.

Bullets spent close to K90 million (about $540 000) in 2004 when they reached the group stages of the competition. Thanks to the sponsorship of former president Bakili Muluzi.

“It is very expensive. Though CAF gives teams money for TV rights in group stages Malawi teams cannot benefit because our national TV cannot offer such services and in turn the services are outsourced to French company Sport Five and all the money goes to them,” said former Bullets vice- treasurer Kondi Msungama.

But if the participation in such competitions is such expensive, how do teams like Dynamos of Zimbabwe, who don’t have a sponsor, and other countries financially troubled teams manage to participate every year?

Felix Ngamanya-Sapao, managing director of Digital Arts and Media Sports, a company that provides marketing service for Sport Five that beams CAF games in the Sadc region, said governments subsidise on their clubs participation.

“In Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho and other countries, their respective governments help them with funding to take part in the CAF tournaments. But they also have arrangements where part of the league or cup prize money goes towards the expenses of participating in the continental tournaments,” said Sapao.

Swaziland’s Observer sports reporter Ashmond Nzima said fund-raising activities have been the major source of funding for their 2012 Champions League representatives Simba United and their Confederation Cup counterparts Leopards.

“On top of government subsidy, the teams have sound fund-raising projects. Nedbank gave Simba funding for their game against FC Platinum of Zimbabwe while Leopards raised their fund,” said Nzima.

In 2008, Sulom and FAM made a request to government that it should be subsidising local teams’ CAF Champions League participation as is the case in other countries

Youth Development and Sports Minister Symon Vuwa-Kaunda was the responsible minister then before he was dropped from Cabinet.

“I was out [of cabinet] for two years and, therefore, I could not make a follow-up and since I was reappointed, I have not followed up on the issue. Let me find out. I will come back to you,” he said.

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