Ministry makes its position plain on national teams
The Ministry of Youth and Sports says it has told Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) that its obligation is only to fund senior national teams.
The ministry made its position during separate meetings it had with the two associations in Lilongwe on Thursday, which also involved the Malawi National Council of Sports.
But in sharp contrast to the ministry’s claims, FAM president Fleetwood Haiya did not take it lying down and said government’s responsibility also extends to junior national sides.
A statement from the ministry, signed by its spokesperson Macmillan Mwale said: “The discussions centred on FAM and NAM’s budgets as the two associations require substantial funding to run their assignments and programmes as well as other areas aimed at addressing some challenges they are facing.”

He said FAM presented a full picture of its funding sources and how it faired in the year just ended as well as its plans for the New Year.
“Government, [through the ministry], acknowledged its obligation that includes funding the senior national teams,” said Mwale.
“The ministry advised FAM to prioritise its activities and also engage other partners to come on board to support football development in the country.”
And in an interview yesterday, Mwale said going forward, their expectation is that the two associations will only be required to submit budgets involving the Flames, the Scorchers and the Malawi Queens.
He said: “Because what has been happening is that FAM and NAM submit budgets for all their programmes, including junior national teams, and what we are saying now is that their budgets should only be for senior teams because for the junior teams, it is their responsibility as it is to do with development.
“Even for the senior teams, it does not mean that if FAM’s budget is say K1 billion, we will be giving them the whole amount. They have partners and sponsors where they also get funding, the same with NAM.”
Mwale further said during the meeting, FAM requested that they should have separate funding from the current basket funding arrangement which caters for all associations.
“For example, last year FAM presented a budget of K4 billion when what was allocated to Sports Council for all associations was about K700 million and the felt having a separate funding would help address the challenge,” he said.
On the issue of Flames coach’s perks, Mwale said the ministry’s stand is that FAM should be signing contracts with coaches directly and government can be supporting through grants that are allocated to the association.
“On the perks, the ministry’s position is that if say a coach is asking for K12 million as salary, then FAM should be able to source a significant amount because in government we have grades and salary structures and no one gets that amount, so it has to be within the set-up and salary scale. That applies to benefits as well,” he said.
During the meeting, FAM also presented debts that they incurred in the course of fulfilling some national team programmes last year, to which Mwale said the Ministry took note and will engage further with Sports Council and the association to explore means to settle them.
“In summary, the meeting was very insightful as FAM presented issues in a transparent manner which is important to woo government support,” he said.
However, while commending the ministry for calling them to appreciate their challenges, Haiya pulled no punches on the stand taken by the ministry on some of the issues.
He said: “First, we are grateful that they committed to look into the issue of debts that we incurred from national team engagements.
“Secondly, National teams are government responsibility. Our responsibilities are to coordinate, develop and control the affairs of football. On the developmental aspect, it involves promotion of football through junior teams.
“For instance, we have a plan to develop a philosophy and for us to achieve that, we have embraced the responsibility of looking after the national junior team coaches, but in the recent past, that was being taken care of by government and we had coaches such as [DeKlerk] Msakakuona and [Patrick] Mabedi, who were employed by government as junior national team coaches. So, today they cannot turn around and say that it is not their responsibility.”
In the same vein, the FAM boss said government already takes care of junior national teams, citing the Under-15 schools national teams that participated in the CAF Schools Championship Qualifying Tournament in Namibia.
“The teams were under Massa [Malawi Schools Sports Association] and camped at a government secondary school. So, in a way, they are already responsible, but maybe it is to do with understanding the concept.” he said.
Haiya said they presented a budget to the ministry which covers all the national teams.
He said: “And if government does not fund them leading to non-participation in tournaments, it could lead to serious repurcussions such as failing to access developmental funding from institutions such as Fifa because we unlock that funding through participation in these tournaments.
“That said, my administration will ensure that we take part in all developmental programmes.”
Similarly, on the issue of coaches, Haiya said it would help for the ministry to come up with a ceiling on the perks other than restricting it to government salary scales.
Meanwhile, Mwale said on its part, NAM asked the ministry to support its programes, including national team coaches’ renumeration as it is in a building exercise.
“The Ministry urged NAM to find a long-term solution on engagement of national team coaches so that government officers helping the national team [including co-coach Mary Waya], can fully revert to their core businesses,” he said.
NAM president Vitumbiko Gubuduza described the meeting as a success.
“NAM presented its strategy and calendar of events for 2025 and the budget required to allow us meet our plan to rebuild the game,” she said.
Among others, the ministry was represented by Minister of Youth and Sports Uchizi Mkandawire, Principal Secretary Isaac Katopola and director of sports Jameson Ndalama while Sports Council had its chief executive officer Henry Kamata.