Big Bullets (BB) are set to revive their menacing reserve side, Banyamulenge, next season to avoid high costs of players on the transfer market and produce patriotic stars to back up their ageing main team.
BB’s move will also be one way of implementing recommendations in the Lilongwe Declaration, a pact Football Association of Malawi (FAM), Super League of Malawi (Sulom) and local elite clubs signed at a five-day Fifa-sponsored ‘Win in Africa with Africa’ club management course in Lilongwe in 2009 aimed at turning Super League clubs professional.
BB will be the fifth team, after Mighty Wanderers, Silver Strikers, Azam Tigers and Epac United, to have an organised reserve side among the 15 Super League teams.
Meanwhile, Wanderers, Silver Strikers and Epac have also embarked on a mission to invest in their reserve sides to ensure they avoid paying huge transfer fees.
BB general secretary Higger Mkandawire told Nation on Sunday during the week that revamping Banyamulenge, which disbanded about a decade ago due to financial constraints, would be the best and cheapest solution to end problems they face when buying players.
“We cannot keep on buying players at an average price of K2 million each from fellow domestic clubs when we can run a reserve side for months with such an amount of money. Reviving the reserve side is a cost-cutting measure,” he said.
Mkandawire added that the return of ‘Banyamulenge Rebels’, which groomed such talented players as former Flames captain Peter Mponda and Simeon Kapuza, would help to restore patriotism in the club that is struggling to win a meaningful trophy in almost a decade.
“In the reserve side, young players will grow together as members of one family before being promoted to the main team and they will be patriotic,” he claimed.
“Our current senior team mostly comprises players that came from rival camps and sometimes their patriotism is questionable because some of them are staunch supporters of former teams.”
Banyamulenge, which borrowed its name from the then notorious ethnic Tutsi group that played a key role in the run-up to the first Congo War in the DRC in 1996, played in the Southern Region Football League’s (SRFL) First Division where they ‘slaughtered’ several Super League giants in cup competitions.
In 1996, under the tutelage of the late Davie Mpesi, Banyamulenge beat prominent Super League teams such as Mighty Wanderers and Moyale Barracks on their way to the semi-finals and finals of two prestigious contests, Chibuku Cup and Press Cup.
Mponda, who was part of the history-making Banyamulenge side, said: “Reserve sides are not only important as a cost-cutting measure for big teams but they are also essential in ensuring that the players have ample time to mature both physically and psychologically before stepping into the elite league.”
Silver Strikers general secretary Mike Tembo and Epac owner Dini Josaya Banda told Nation on Sunday that if every Super League club had a reserve side, Sulom would not have a backlog of player transfer wrangles as is the case at present.
“This is why we have decided to pump into our junior side the millions we earmarked for buying new players in next season. We intend to rope into our reserve side talented young players from regional leagues such as Chipiku. We are afraid that soon, the cost of buying players from fellow elite clubs would be as high as K10 million [about $25 000],” said Tembo.
According to Wanderers’ chairperson George Chamangwana, whose club recently promoted Albert Mpinganjira Junior from their youth side, they believe in the reserve side as a nursery although they still have an appetite for buying a few stars from other clubs to strengthen their team.
Sulom general secretary Williams Banda confessed that they are failing to enforce recommendations of the Lilongwe Declaration, including the need for each Super League club to have a reserve side, due to financial problems local teams are facing.
“Most clubs are currently struggling to sustain themselves in the Super League and the reserve sides might be a burden on them,” he said.
So, how will a team such as BB, which has stayed close to 10 years without sponsorship, sustain both the main team and a junior side?
“We will do it in a way that it will not require a lot of money to implement. After all, a reserve side does not need a lot of money to run. We will have Under-20 players who will not need salaries and hefty upkeep allowances.
“We will use the money meant for buying players to keep Banyamulenge going. We have intensified our marketing drive through the SMS campaign and the sale of our merchandise. Some of the money will come from such initiatives,” said Mkandawire.
