Sulom verdict challenged

Some soccer pundits say there could have been a better way of punishing Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers for the violence that happened at Balaka Stadium last Saturday.

Felix Ngamanya Sapao and Kelvin Moyo made the observation in reaction to Sulom Disciplinary Committee’s decision to ban Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers for eight and five months respectively.

Sapao argued that it is not the practice elsewhere, saying: “Players are employed, they earn their money through playing football, now how are the clubs going to meet their contractual obligations?”

He added: “If these teams were found guilty, then there were several options that Sulom would have considered such as deducting points, relegation, hefty fines or playing in empty stadium, but not outright ban.”

He said whichever way people look at Malawian players, they are more or less professional footballers because they depend on the game for a living.

Sapao also noted that the trend of banning teams is old-fashioned.

“I remember Bata Bullets [now Big Bullets] were banned for six months in the 1990s for violence, but did it help improve the situation?” he asked.

On his part, Moyo said after all is said and done, it boils down to the welfare of the players.

“The teams were not involved in the violence, but it is the players who are being punished and yet not even a single fan has been banned, is that fair?” he said.

The former TVM sports producer cited some foreign games which ended in bloodshed such as the Al-Ahly and Ismailia in Port Said, Egypt, where 78 fans died as a result of violence, but the teams were not banned.

But Sulom general secretary Williams Banda argued that the players cannot be separated from the actions of their fans. He urged teams to come up with ways of controlling their fans.

Wanderers general secretary David Kanyenda also sympathised with the players, wondering how they are going to survive without playing football.

The Nomads GS also claimed that the verdict was already made and the committee merely met to rubber-stump Sulom president Innocent Bottomani’s decision to have the game replayed.

However, Bottomani reiterated that his statement was misinterpreted, saying: “What I was implying was that in the event that the disciplinary body rules a replay, then it would have to be played in closed doors.”