‘Pay as you earn’

 Some associations have asked Sports Council to classify affiliates based on annual subventions they get from government to ensure that those that get more should be paying more affiliation fees.

The associations have cited Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) as some of the bodies that get a lion’s share of the subventions yet all the associations are supposed to pay the same affiliation fee, a situation they have described as unfair.

This comes after the Malawi National Council of Sports announced the increase of minimum affiliation fees per association from K50 000 to K150 000 and minimum annual subvention from K500 000 to K5million last week.

On average, FAM and NAM get K400 million and K300 million respectively and, in some cases, extra funding while other associations get between K2 million and K10 million unless iff they have international activities.

Said Taekwondo Association of Malawi (TAM) president Tichitenji Nkhwazi: “Much as we welcome the latest adjustments, we feel there are disparities on how we are treated as associations in terms of annual support yet we all pay equal affiliation fees.

“As TAM, we have been successful in terms of performance as we won 12 medals, which included four gold during the recent Region 5 Games in Lilongwe yet we got less than K3 million in subvention while those that get more perform poorly. There is need for a review.”

Malawi Wrestling Association general secretary Maggie Chikuni concurred with Nkhwazi that there is need for council to classify the associations.

“I do not think the associations that get more funding feel the pain that some of us go through by relying on personal contributions from our committee members to pay the affiliation fee,” she said.

But FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda and NAM vice-president Chimwemwe Bakali said it will be unfair for them to pay more affiliation fees than other associations.

Gunda explained that FAM’s affiliation to the Sports Council is not based on how big the association is as the fees apply to all bodies equally.

“As FAM, we get funding from the government to manage the national football teams and not to run our operations as an association. Mind you, it is government’s responsibility to finance the national teams,” he said.

Bakali concurred with Gunda that the associations’ level of activities, in terms of national team management, determines how much funding a body must get.

He said: “As NAM, we are funded based on our activities including Malawi Queens’ engagements. We are already suffering as last year we got only 15 percent of our K1 billion budget and there is no need to be squeezed more.

“Moreover, as a team sport, we cannot be compared with some individual disciplines.”

Sports Council board chairperson Sunduzwayo Madise said they will sit down to look into the issue and see if it is necessary to classify the associations.

He said: “The idea of classifying associations is one that we have also been thinking about on the basis that, if association A pays K150 000 to access K5million, should association B pay the same fee to access K150million? Are we being fair?

“It is something we will consider  to say that if you benefit more, you should as well contribute more.

“However, our fear is that will that not lead to the differentiation of associations because our theory has always been that there is no such a thing as major or minor sport? But, maybe, are we being naive; is there already a difference on the ground? This is something that will be looked into.” n