Nomads, bullets ‘lose’ stadiums

Ministry of Youth and Sports has said it is not automatic that the stadiums being constructed in Zingwangwa and Soche townships in Blantyre will be allocated to FCB Nyasa Bullets and Mighty Mukuru Wanderers, respectively.

In an interview yesterday, the ministry’s spokesperson MacMillan Mwale said once construction is completed, government will come up with terms and conditions.

He said being public facilities, other teams will also have a chance to use them as their home grounds.

This comes after the two teams said as major stakeholders in the projects, they expected to be kept abreast on the developments.

Said Mwale: “I know this will create some sort of controversy, but as earlier stated, these facilities are being built using public resources and they cannot be aligned to particular teams.

“There should not be too much expectation, suffice to say that the management model will be set once the projects are through, be it PPP [public private partnership] or something else.

“If there will be other arrangements, they will be announced.”

He also said instead of naming the facilities after the two teams, the stadiums have been named Zingwangwa and Soche because of their geographical locations.

 “It is for the simple reason that they are public facilities.On the other hand, it is about associating them with their locations,” said Mwale

Last week, Minister of Youth and Sports Uchizi Mkandawire called the stadiums as Soche and Zingwangwa during question time in Parliament.

 And on Friday, Minister of Finance Simplex Chithyola Banda also made a similar reference when he presented the 2024-25 Proposed National Budget Statement in Parliament.

But in separate interviews yesterday, Bullets and Wanderers said what they know is that government promised to build them stadiums.

Wanderers board secretary Chancy Gondwe said: “So, if there is now a change of heart, I hope we will be advised.”

On his part, Bullets chief administration officer Albert Chigoga said: “Malawi Government pledged to build us a stadium. As regards how government carries out such processes is something we may not know.”

The stadium that was initially meant for Bullets is being built in Zingwangwa Township  near Moneymen Club along Chikwawa Road and was initially estimated to cost K3.8 billion.The project was awarded to China Civil engineering.

On the other hand, the stadium that was meant for Wanderers is being constructed near Blantyre Teacher’s Training College in Soche. It was estimated to cost K3.6 billion and was awarded to Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company.

Government, through immediate-past president Peter Mutharika, pledged to construct the two stadia during the 2019 Tripartite Elections campaign period.