PUMA EQUIPMENT MISSES AT FAM

Some pieces of Puma equipment, including jerseys, boots and casual wear have seemingly grown wings and disappeared at FAM.

This came to light recently when the Under-20 national team wanted to use the equipment for their CAF Africa Youth Championship first-round first leg against the Young Zebras of Botswana.

The Junior Flames were forced to improvise their jerseys with stickers to make up for the missing kit. They also borrowed personal boots from well-wishers.

As part of the contract with Puma that was terminated recently, FAM received six sets of match uniforms, training kit, casual wear, match and training footballs, travel bags and other accessories, some of which the association has confirmed missing.

“We have indeed established that some of the equipment we got from Puma has gone missing and we have launched an internal investigation into the issue,” said Football Association of Malawi (FAM) chief executive officer, Suzgo Nyirenda.

Asked how the equipment could go missing when they have a system that notes what comes in and goes out of the storeroom, Nyirenda said: “The system is still in place, but it would appear there was a lapse somewhere.

“In some instances, players do not return the items after use. The same applies with the technical panel. For the recent international games, we had to buy new casual wear for the coaching panel,” said Nyirenda.

However, a Flames senior player, who asked for anonymity, said FAM should not push the blame to the players.

“With the system that is in place, I doubt if players are involved in the missing items,” said the player.

Aubrey Nankhuni, who was team manager until recently, said he got wind of the issue about the missing equipment.

“During my tenure, Flames played six games and every time I collected items from the FAM storeroom, the transaction was done in the presence of the storekeeper [Jossam Namwela] and technical development officer Charles Manda,” Nankhuni explained.

He, however, recalled that the only items that went missing during his tenure were two balls. One during the Independence Anniversary game against Mozambique and the other one got lost in Botswana during evening training.

Namwela somehow contradicted, Nyirenda, claiming that the items that went missing are not substantial.

“There are indeed some sets of uniforms that are incomplete because either some pieces, such as jerseys and shorts, were lost either through theft by players or some unscrupulous people, but it is not much,” said Namwela adding, that he was ignorant of a probe Nyirenda claims has instituted.

The FAM storekeeper also played down suggestions that some items might have gone missing from the storeroom without his knowledge.

“I doubt very much, unless if they were stolen when I am busy attending to other things in the storeroom,” he said.

Five years ago, FAM found itself in a difficult situation when equipment from Fifa meant for Super League clubs worth millions of kwacha went missing in its custody at Chiwembe Technical Centre.

The donation came under the ‘Win-in-Africa-with-Africa’ programme and a commission of inquiry set up to investigate the issue established that there was lapse in the way the association kept equipment.