A police report released during the week says Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers’ disgruntled fans are behind the recent spate of violence against Army teams.
The two-paged report, which the Southern Region Police Headquarters submitted to Football Association of Malawi (FAM) on September 9 2013, further warned that unless there were drastic measures, the attacks on Malawi Defence Force (MDF) teams would continue.
“It would appear the differences that are there between the supporters of [Wanderers and Big Bullets] and military teams were not solved and if not seriously looked into in time, these irate supporters will still be ambushing these military teams. A mechanism must be put in place to arrest the situation perhaps before the second round of the Super League commences,” warned the report signed by a Mr C. Bandawe on behalf of the commissioner of police.
Super League of Malawi (Sulom) general secretary Williams Banda said he had not seen the report, but FAM and Southern Region police publicist Nicholas Gondwa confirmed the document was sent to FAM.
The law enforcers submitted the report following a spate of seemingly coordinated attacks against Army teams, the latest being on Kamuzu Barracks when they played Blantyre United in last Sunday’s Carlsberg Cup semi-final at Kamuzu Stadium.
The report added that one suspected perpetrator Joe Namakhwa was arrested at the stadium during the fracas and will appear in court once investigations are through. The rowdy fans defied the presence of 100 armed police to throw missiles on the pitch and injure one officer called Julius, forcing the police to fire tear gas.
Sources said the fans were bitter that Bullets and Wanderers will, at the end of the season, lose Carlsberg Malawi Limited sponsorship.
Deep-seated rivalry with the Army teams and FAM’s bad blood against Wanderers and Bullets top officials has only further worsened the violence.
“It is like sabotage. Some of the remarks flying between FAM and the two giants have sparked this and FAM knows this. That is why they are trying to engage the clubs,” said the source on Tuesday.
FAM has summoned Wanderers general secretary David Kanyenda and his Bullets counterpart Higger Mkandawire over their remarks that the association fuels crowd trouble. The two officials have since rebuffed FAM.
