Sports associations ignore offices
Most local sports associations will continue to struggle to gain the trust and respect of prospective sponsors due to their tendency of having ‘briefcase’ offices, Sports Council has said.
According to the council’s executive secretary George Jana, out of 43 local sports associations, only seven have offices to operate from and this negatively affects the sports bodies’ chances to secure sponsorship.
The seven associations are Football Association of Malawi (FAM), Netball Association of Malawi (NAM), Hockey Association of Malawi (HAM), Lawn Tennis Association of Malawi (Ltam), Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM), Special Olympics and Volleyball Association of Malawi (VAM).
He said despite frequent reminders to the associations on the need to have offices, most bodies still shun the idea and, in turn, this compromises their delivery of service as it limits their contacts with the outside world.
“In fact, even the element of professionalism is compromised. Any organisation commands respect and is viewed as being professional if, and, when it has its own base where it operates from,” argued Jana.
He also said it seems the problem is that most associations want government to provide their every need, including offices.
“Excuses, of course, have always been that they [the associations] cannot afford the rentals.
“But at the end of the day, this is a chicken and egg situation where we believe that by them having offices, the associations will raise their profile and status, which would, in turn, assist them gain respect among organisations and, therefore, they can easily have money.”
According to Jana, where the council has office space to spare, any willing association can be granted that space and it is up to them to decide how they would use it in terms of whether to have a full-time person operating in it.
Golf Union of Malawi (GUoM) president James Chimwaza and Malawi Cricket Union (MCU) general secretary Krishna Achuthan agreed with Jana, saying in this day and age, it does not make sense for people to operate public offices from their homes, briefcases or boots of cars as it just compromises the professional outlook of such bodies.
They said this is why their respective associations are doing their best to have their own places by the end of the year.
Said Chimwaza: “We have realised that we desperately need a secretariat for continuity and history. In the past, I believe it was the culture of taking the running of sports association as voluntary work that blurred our vision of having an office.
“But now, we have secured a place at Blantyre Sports Club for our secretariat. Currently, work is in progress and we are meeting this week to agree on when to occupy the office. We will have two permanent employees for finance and administration and we will focus more on our junior golf programmes.”
On his part, Achuthan said MCU is restructured and should have an office next month or early next year.
The issue of establishing their own offices is also among the 15 guidelines MCU must follow to be readmitted into the African Cricket fold, where they are currently on suspension.
“We have just amended our constitution and the issue of having a physical address was included. After our elections on December 5 in Blantyre, we will definitely have an office. Anywhere in the world, an office gives a professional image of an organisation,” he said.
But Basketball Association of Malawi (Basmal) vice-president Ben Mlasaanthu said with the meagre support they get from government through Sports Council, it is difficult for them to operate from an office.
