Mighty Wanderers chief supporter Yona Malunga and his Big Bullets counterpart Isaac Jomo Osman were reportedly involved in a fiery brawl at Wanderers Club on Wednesday evening over midfielder Fischer Kondowe’s controversial training with the Nomads.
According to a witness, it all started when Malunga boasted to Osman that they had secured Fischer who is considered Bullets’ trump card.
“The two were at Wanderers Club for the IntoSports Giants Peace Cup second-leg preparatory meeting. Jomo was the first to arrive and Yona came later.
“Soon after his arrival, Yona started bragging about Fischer’s move and called the player into the bar and offered him a soft drink. This did not go down well with Jomo and the verbal tirade soon ensued into physical confrontation,” the witness told The Nation.
He said people tried to calm the situation by separating the two and Jomo’s shirt was torn in the process.
The witness said the situation worsened when Jomo confronted Fischer, leading to a pandemonium that lasted a couple of minutes.
He said the three [Jomo, Yona and Fischer] were later sent away and the meeting went on as planned.
The source said at a later stage, some members of the main organising committee summoned Jomo and Yona for a damage-control reconciliatory meeting at Kamba.
Bullets trustees secretary Jim Kalua, who is in the main organising committee, was elusive when contacted on the issue at first, but later confirmed the incident, describing it as “small misunderstanding”.
“Who has told you that? Anyway, it was not something serious. It just happened in the heat of the moment, such things happen sometimes, but we had a round-table discussion and the issue was sorted out amicably.
“The two [Jomo and Yona] also represented the two teams later on during a live radio programme at MIJ FM,” said Kalua.
Kalua insisted that despite the confrontation, there is no cause for worry, saying: “As I said, it is an issue that was resolved and there will be no tension whatsoever on Saturday. Everything is under control and we are taking the campaign against violence at football matches to Lilongwe.”
The Nomads’ general secretary David Kanyenda said was not aware of the incident.
“What brawl? We have no comment on the brawl allegations. Maybe you should talk to the alleged pugilists,” he said.
Malunga denied the occurrence of the incident, saying: “Inu wakuwuzani ndani Agale? Iyayi kunalibe kalikonse. (Who has told you, Garry. There was nothing) Jomo is my friend, timakalipirana koma timacheza (we reprimand each and life goes on), nothing of that sort happened.”
Osman also played down the issue when contacted yesterday, saying: “I just had an exchange of verbal tirade with Yona, palibe chinachitika, tangozisiya zimenezo, pajatu tiri pa mgwirizano ndi a Wanderers [nothing serious happened, just ignore that issue, mind you we are on a peace pact with Wanderers].
He also denied physically confronting Fischer.
Fischer confirmed the fracas, but claimed that it did not concern him.
“It was the two who were involved in the physical and verbal confrontation, but it did not concern me,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bullets were expected to have a disciplinary hearing yesterday at their clubhouse to discuss Fischer and Osman’s saga that led to Fischer being chased from training.
