Officials shun courses
Sports Council and the Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) have in the last five years run certificate and diploma courses in sports administration, yet top officials for institutions and clubs such as FAM, Sulom, Big Bullets, Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers do not enrol.
MOC course director Mark Tembo on Wednesday bemoaned the disinterest in such training, noting that it was one of the fundamental problems retarding football development in the country. The diploma course is for free.
“There is lack of enthusiasm, yet the likes of football, volleyball, athletics and netball are more in the public domain; hence, their administrative shortfalls are more exposed,” Tembo said on Wednesday.
Malawi Schools Sports Association (Massa) president Ken Mphande, who is an educationist, said his association has benefitted a lot since he attended the diploma course.
“As for most top officials not enrolling, I think we have an attitude problem. They are full of themselves. There is also need for clarity on the mode of unification on the admission of the applicants. It is a pity that most of those who attend the course are not attached to top positions. Most are teachers,” Mphande argued on Tuesday.
Sulom general secretary Williams Banda and Wanderers general secretary David Kanyenda, while admitting to have heard about the courses, challenged MOC and Sports Council to publicise the courses aggressively.
“They are leaving out important people and all this cannot be our fault,” Kanyenda insisted, only to change his tune when asked how others from remote areas apply easily for the courses.
“I am not able to explain why this is so. It depends on whether you look at football administration as a career. I have heard about the course, but I will apply at an appropriate time, when I settle down.”
On Tuesday, MOC administration manager Naomi Chinatu said all football bodies are well represented in the courses. But MOC president Oscar Kanjala on Wednesday insisted that they communicate to all sporting codes.
“I cannot answer on their behalf as to why they do not enrol, but we do not deal with individuals or clubs but national federations. They are supposed to go through them. We do not necessarily publicise, but we communicate with our affiliates [which include FAM],” said Kanjala.
So far, 61 students have graduated from the free diploma course and even more from the certificate course, yet most of them are from the countryside, especially teachers drawn from Dowa, Chiradzulu, Mulanje, Ntchisi, Kasungu and Mzimba.
MOC facilitates a one-year advanced sports administration diploma offered by the International Olympic Committee whereas the council manages a three-year advanced certificate in sport management by the University of Pretoria. The long-distance courses are advertised every year in the press.
Flames’ decline on the international stage, failure to commercialise the game and even harmonise fixtures at all levels could be the price administrators are paying for lack of the knowledge the course offer.
FAM commercial manager Casper Jangale, vice-president Pikawo Ngalamila, execuitive member Flora Mwandira, competitions officer Gomezgani Zakazaka and technical director John Kaputa are the only recognizable football officials to have graduated from both courses. Kaputa and Zakazaka graduated before joining FAM this year.
