Restructure club ownership: This isn’t street football

“Those exercising authority,” Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, “ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting.”

I don’t subscribe to Machiavelli’s school of political thought, but I understand the thinking of the Italian great some consider a philosopher.

In case you have been following Mighty Wanderers’ and Silver Strikers’ cocktail of appeals in the aftermath of the December 28 2013 Balaka Stadium madness, you must be wondering whether local fans and club officials love or fear the Super League of Malawi (Sulom) and the Football Association of Malawi (FAM).

If the two clubs have not appealed against FAM Disciplinary Committee verdict, as they did in challenging Sulom disciplinary and appeals committees’ determinations, then they feel their egos have been massaged enough. Otherwise they do not respect FAM and Sulom.

And when the clubs cannot take responsibility, say sorry and admit that they are unable to deal with elements in their supporters’ camps then domestic football is left in a lurch.

At this stage, FAM and Sulom needed to bite and instill fear in the hooligans. Unfortunately, the hooligans were left scot-free while the teams that harbour them remain defiant.

The changing of goal posts on the punishments meted out to Silver and Wanderers, who both have in recent years committed similar offences, was not only about allowing the streams of natural justice flow but a reflection of weakening football authority. It is political correctness at its worst.

Now the whole football fraternity is at the mercy of the powerful fans who bulldoze their way into stadiums for free, plunder gate collections and fan violence while players get frustrated and poorer.

If FAM and Sulom want to eradicate violence, they must rid communal ownership of local clubs and ensure legal ownership. For example, Kaizer Motaung of South Africa owns Kaizer Chiefs as a business entity.

FAM and Sulom cannot manage an industry which ghosts on the streets they claim to own. This is Super League football not street football.