Mighty Wanderers FC have revealed that their president Thomson Mpinganjira spent about K500 million on their failed 2025/26 Confederation of African Footbll (CAF) Confederation Cup campaign.
The Nomads were shown the exit door in the continental showpiece by Botswana outfit Jwaneng Galaxy 7-6 on post-match penalties in the first preliminary round.
This was after they won the first leg 1-0 at home before losing by a similar margin in the return leg to force the match into penalty shootout away in Fracistown, Botswana.
In an interview on Saturday, the club’s director of football David Kanyenda said: “The costs were in the range of K500 million.”
He said among others, the expenses included local and foreign accommodation, local camp allowances, game bonuses and foreign travel allowances.
“Other expenses were foreign travel, including a chartered plane which cost in excess of K130 million,” said Kanyenda.
“We also had to spend on booking match venue and a variety of match day logistics such as promotional activities, accreditation and ticketing.”
According to The Nation findings Wanderers hired Bingu National Stadium for the home match from the Ministry of Youth and Sports at K18 million.
Said Kanyenda: “The list is a lot longer than this highly summarised version.
“Never in the history of Mighty Wanderers has a single sponsor placed so much resources at the club’s disposal and we remain immensely indebted to our esteemed benefactor Dr Thomson Mpinganjira for his boundless generosity and astute leadership of the club.”
On whether the club conducted a review after its exit from the competition, he said: “I cannot divulge the specifics of our technical analysis, suffice it to say that the two teams were almost at par.
“Jwaneng replicated the result from the first leg culminating in a shootout . We needed to carry at least a two-goal lead.
“Generally, we have struggled in two-legged ties even locally. We were eliminated 2-1 on aggregate by Karonga in this year’s edition of Airtel Top 8 after taking a 1-0 lead in the first leg.
“Last season, although we eliminated Bangwe All Stars on penalties, we also lost the second leg.”
Kanyenda said in future, they need to manage home and away fixtures better.
“Penalties are no longer a lottery, but a football science in their own right. We need to research on our opponents penalty takers and even goalkeeper reactions,” he said.
Kanyenda also admitted that technically, Wanderers were slightly deficient in their game management strategy, especially in the second half of the away tie against Galaxy “coupled with a little bit of stage fright”.
He said: “Otherwise we learnt our lessons both on and off the pitch that we are going to apply locally.
“In future, we shall perform better if we qualify and if it pleases our club president to sanction another participation.
“We are still apologetic to the president and the entire Wanderers family for our early ouster contrary to expectations.”
In a separate interview, Mpinganjira, who is also the club’s main sponsor and board chairperson, said the team lacked killer instinct in the home game “and that cost them”.
On the way forward, the business mogul and philanthropist said: “You do not invest money to lose it. You invest to make more money and in football, you invest to win. What else?”
