Pressure mounts against Saintfiet

The Commercial Court in Lilongwe on Saturday turned down concerned citizen Teddie Moya’s application for an injunction restraining FAM from engaging Belgian Tom Saintfiet as Flames caretaker coach.

Grounds filed by Moya included that Football Association of Malawi (FAM) did not follow procedures and that reasons for engaging the expatriate were not convincing.

Moya confirmed in an interview from the capital, Lilongwe that his application was dismissed on grounds that there was lack of excessive interest.

“The court turned down the application for an injunction due to insufficient interest. They said the affidavit was supposed to be signed by a person with successive interest, who could be directly affected such as a player or a coach.

“But I approached two players who have accepted to sign the affidavit and we will be filing a fresh application on Tuesday or Wednesday,” said Moya.

He disclosed the identity of the players to The Nation, but asked for their anonymity for the time being.

“These are senior players. They also claimed that the move to hire an expatriate and remove Ernest [Mtawali] from the caretaker coaching panel, has affected the morale in camp.

“The players have committed to sign the document when they return from Blantyre on their way to Zambia for the Cosafa Cup,” said Moya who is being represented by lawyer Likhwa Mussa.

FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda refused to comment on the issue, saying he needed to consult first.

In a related development, Flames captain Joseph Kamwendo has spoken out his frustration over FAM’s offer of $10 000 [about K3 million] to the expatriate should they win against Nigeria while it is overlooking players’ concerns.

“The issue of our incentives has been long overdue and yet here is an association that is more concerned about an expatriate’s perks than the players. Why don’t they make an offer to the players as well? Where are their priorities, if I may ask?

“If that is the way they are going to do things, then some of us will seriously consider quitting the national team. They know that the problem is not the coaches, but players’ incentives and level of preparations, yet we are insulted when the team does not perform,” Kamwendo said in a text message from Mozambique.

He also described FAM’s move to drop Mtawali from the coaching panel as unfortunate.

“It is really disappointing to hear of such unfortunate developments taking place back home,” he said.

Saintfiet arrived in the country on Friday.