Nomads cling to another player

Blantyre United have accused Mighty Wanderers and Super League of Malawi (Sulom) of conniving to block registration of their midfielder Abraham Kamwendo for the current TNM Super League season.

But Wanderers general secretary Mike Butao and Sulom general secretary Williams Banda yesterday distanced themselves from the claim.

United administrator Lawson Nakoma said they are wondering why Sulom is playing hide-and-seek on registering the 17-year-old despite that the player’s year-long loan contract with Wanderers expired last season.

Nakoma also said Blantyre United does not understand why Wanderers are determined to claim ownership of the player when they have not paid the agreed K2 million transfer fee for the Under-20 national team star.

“We suspect Wanderers and Sulom have connived to block our player from registering with us. We approached Sulom before the league started—over five months ago—but up to now they have not registered him.

“The Sulom general secretary always refers us to the body’s secretariat which also refers us back to the GS. We are surprised with this because everybody knows Kamwendo has a running contract with us,” said Nakoma.

According to Nakoma, Kamwendo currently trains and gets his upkeep allowances from Wanderers. He, however, said Blantyre United pray that things do not turn worse for Kamwendo as was the case with Tony Chitsulo who was sidelined for a season at Nomads due to transfer wrangles with Silver Strikers.

“Wanderers just want to disrupt Kamwendo’s career as they did with Chitsulo. We will meet as Blantyre United executive tomorrow to map the way forward,” said Nakoma.

While admitting that they are dragging their feet over paying Kamwendo’s transfer fee, Butao said Wanderers are committed to pay by instalments starting from next week.

“We are not at war with United. We will pay them at least K500 000 from the revenue we will get from gate collections after our Carlsberg Cup semi-final against Big Bullets. Kamwendo is in our plans, but as you know, we process transfer of one player at a time due to limited resources at our club,” he said.

Banda said Sulom does not block any player’s registration, but they always want to ensure that clubs follow proper procedures.

“For us to register a player there must be a clear indication that the player belongs to a particular team and not two teams. Apart from that, these two teams are still discussing the transfer of the player, so we do not interfere,” said Banda.

On his part, Kamwendo, young brother to TP Mazembe star Joseph and Mighty Wanderers midfielder Felix, said all he wants is to play football and realise his dream of playing professional soccer abroad.

He said he will return to Blantyre United if the Nomads fail to fulfil their plans of buying him before the start of the league’s second round in the next few weeks.

“I have waited for too long without playing a competitive match and my patience has grown thin already. If Wanderers do not pay the transfer fees, I will return to Blantyre United,” he said.

Abraham is the last born son in a family of nine siblings.