Mzuzu Stadium officials ‘caught’ with over K350 000

Mzuzu Stadium authorities were found with a K350 000 gate collection which they failed to account for after last Sunday’s Standard Bank Knockout Cup quarter-final match between Moyale Barracks and Mighty Wanderers, The Nation has learnt.

Nomads vice-general secretary Chris Kananji on Tuesday said the scam was discovered after the sharing of gate proceeds had been done.

Initially, K1.6 million was registered as gross from which the two teams, ground owners and Football Association of Malawi (FAM) shared slightly over K200 000 each while the rest went to other stakeholders such as security and first aid.

“After reconciling all the gate collections, the stadium authorities who disbursed the shares then said the money that remained, was supposed to be their share.

“We [teams], therefore, asked them to count their share as well for verification purposes and it was at this point that we discovered the over K350 000 which they could not account for,” said Kananji.

The Nomads vice-GS said the move to ask Mzuzu Stadium authorities to count their share was deliberate because this has been the trend at other stadiums.

“When quizzed to explain the excess, they failed and after consulting our Moyale counterparts, we agreed to share the money between the two clubs, but other stakeholders pleaded to get a cut as well and so it was agreed that the two clubs should get K140 000 each from the excess,” said Kananji.

He added: “With such kind of fraudulent dealings, it is difficult for teams to make more money from gate revenue.”

Mzuzu Stadium manager Nathan Levison Kuyokwa could not be reached for comment yesterday, but he told Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) earlier on that there was no fraudulent intention.

“An excess was indeed detected, but there were no ill-intentions whatsoever. I think the overage came about probably because revenue from one of the gates was not included on the initial sheet,” said Kuyokwa.

But Kananji dismissed the stadium manager’s claims, arguing: “That is not possible because all the gates are indicated on the sheet and when the revenue comes, all stakeholders endorse, the process is systematic that it cannot be overlooked.”

However, Mzuzu City Council chief executive officer Thomas Chirwa said the version that he got was that one cash box was overlooked at the time of the counting.

“I was not here in Mzuzu then, but according to the explanation that they [stadium authorities] gave me, one of the boxes that contained the K350 000 was overlooked,” he said.