Report shows only Bullets passed test

FCB Nyasa Bullets are the only  licensed team to participate in the TNM Super League, it has emerged.

Football Association of Malawi club (FAM) licensing First Istance Body (FIB) licensing results show that the other 15 clubs failed to meet minimum requirements.

Practically, the 15 teams are not eligible to participate in the competition until they meet the requirements by Friday.

According to the results, most of the clubs failed to submit proof of having a permanent secretariat and registration as a legal entity.

They also have no evidence of having youth development programmes duly approved by FAM through its technical director’s office.

Some clubs also failed to submit a declaration of no outstanding debts with other clubs, their players, coaches, FAM and Super League of Malawi.

FIB also said it did not license the other clubs due to failure to submit comprehensive budget for 2024 season as well as business and marketing plans.

Failure to confirm the use of club account through bank statement also led to a number of clubs being denied licences.

Those that did not submit employment contracts for players, head coach and assistant coach have also be asked to do so.

Other clubs failed to submit audited accounts, confirmation of medical aid for their players, constitutions and proof of stadia owners approval to use them for home matches.

The clubs have up to Friday to fulfil the minimum requirements according to a letter they got from FAM dated April 23 2024.

Reads the letter from FAM to the clubs: “The Football Association of Malawi hereby communicates the decision made by FAM First Instance Body (FIB) on your club’s licensing application for the 2024 season which has not been granted pending fulfilment of the following outstanding issue.

“Kindly submit the documents requested not later than Friday April 26 2024 to FAM offices in Chiwembe, Blantyre.”

Silver Strikers chief executive officer Patrick Chimimba refused to comment on how the Central Bankers failed to submit the required documents while Mighty Mukuru Wanderers chief executive officer Panganeni Ndovi said they missed some documents.

Said Ndovi: “We are resubmitting the documents they asked us. We should have the documents ready in a few days.”

Newly-promoted Fomo FC general secretary Jimmy Maloya also confirmed that they have not been licensed.

“We are remaining with few things hopefully to finish by  April 26 deadline,” he said.

On his part, Bullets chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda said he expected the club to get licensed having submitted all requiredt documents.

He said: “We are a professional club. We did everything the Clop [club licensing online platform] system asked us to do.

“It would have been a shock if we were among the teams that have failed to get a licence.

“We started preparing for the Clop way back knowing that it would require us to have all relevant documents handy.”

For the first time since 2015, FAM decided to set aside Fifa’s club licensing requirement and allowed the TNM Super League to kick off to avoid delaying the season.

FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda, in an earlier interview, said the delay was due to the migration from manual based licensing to mandatory CAF’s Clop.

“There have been a number of factors that have contributed to this; the first being a change from the traditional way of licensing [paper-based] to electronic version under Clop and secondly, the FAM executive committee required to reconstitute the club licensing bodies following end of the mandate for the previous ones,” he said.