The FDH Bank Cup final between Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe on Sunday grossed K112 million despite a big turnout.
In separate interviews, both teams said the figure does not reflect the big turnout while the facility’s owners’ Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culure conceded that there are still some loopholes.
From the gross, K24.15 million went towards expenses, leaving a net of K88.3 million from which the two teams and the ministry got K22 million each.
Football Association of Malawi received K17.66 million while the Malawi National Council of Sports got K4.41 million.
Reacting to the gross revenue, Wanderers CEO Panganeni Ndovi said: “We can’t say we are satisfied with the gross revenue considering the massive turnout that was recorded yesterday.
“The figures do not seem to fully reflect the crowd we saw at the stadium and this raises serious questions about the efficiency and transparency of the current ticketing and gate management systems.”
He said as one of the key stakeholders, they observed several grey areas, from ticket handling and gate-control to general security coordination.
Said Ndovi: “These are critical aspects that determine not just revenue collection, but also the overall match-day experience for fans and partners.
“We believe football in Malawi can only grow if accountability and proper systems are in place. Therefore, we will officially take up the matter with FAM and engage other relevant stakeholders to get to the bottom of what went wrong and to find lasting solutions.”
He said their aim is to ensure that every kwacha generated from the game is properly accounted for “and that all stakeholders benefit fairly from the sport we love”.
His Silver counterpart Patrick Chimimba also said the turnout did not reflect the amount realised.
He said: “BNS is one magnificent facility, but teams always have headaches handling matches on this venue.
“There is one section that has no fence and makes it impossible for the security personnel to handle the magnitude that come to watch matches.
“Furthermore, the tendency of coming to watch matches a few minutes before kick-off always overwhelms our security. For a long time, we have deplored the conduct of the security agents who, on several occasions, have also been in the forefront of kuthyola khobwe [fraud].”
FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakzaka had not yet responded to our questionnaire at 4pm press time.
The ministry’s spokesperson Macmillan Mwale said there are still some loopholes that need to be filled.
He said: “There is need to enhance access control and general security to generate more as it was observed that there are still some loop holes in the system ticketing.
“We will be engaging the event organisers, FAM on this. We strongly believe we can generate more revenue.”
