Dwangwa Utd slowly moving off danger zone: Malawi’s TNM Super League
Dwangwa United are slowly climbing off the the relegation zone as they are now 12th but they still habe much work to do because they tie on 19 points with Civo United (13th) and Wizards (14th).
They are separated by goal difference — Dwangwa have -12, Civo -13 and Wizards -19. Dwangwa moved to 12th after beating Civo United 3-1 last Monday.
Wizards made life difficult for themselves by losing 0-2 to visiting Blue Eagles at Kamuzu Stadium while Civo lost 1-2 to visiting Mighty Be Forward Wanderers last Saturday.
The other bottom of the table teams are Karonga United on 15th with 18 points and Maxi Bullets on 16th with Karonga United.
The race at the top of the table is still tight as Silver Strikers have 41 points, one ahead of second-placed defending champions Big Bullets with 40 points from 22 games of 10 wins, 10 draws and two losses.
On third place are Blue Eagles with 39 points from 21 games, followed by Mafco on 38 points from 21 games on 4th place while Kamuzu Barracks are 5th with 37 points from 2 games.
The leaders Silver Strikers host Civo United at Silver Stadium on Sunday in the highly rated Lilongwe City derby while Bullets date Azam Tigers at Kamuzu Stadium.
Blue Eagles are on bye and will face Moyale away at Mzuzu Stadium next week while 4th-placed Mafco will host Karonga United at Chitowe this Sunday.
Fifth-place Kamuzu Barracks date Epac at Civo Stadium on Saturday.
The middle part of the log table has Mzuni on 6th with 34 points, Moyale on 7th with 33, Wanderers on 8th with 32 points, Azam Tigers on 9th with 30, Epac on 10th with 27 and Red Lions on 11th with 27 points.
All is not rosy with Wanderers. After losing 0-1 to their arch rivals Big Bullets at Kamuzu Stadium a fortnight ago, the executive committee fired head coach Eddingtone Ng’onamo and his assistant Eliah Kananji and replaced them with former coach Yasin Osman as the head coach while club’s former top striker Bob Mpinganjira was appointed as deputy.
But Wanderers travelled to Lilongwe for their two league assignments in which they won 2-1 against 13th-placed Civo United before losing 1-2 to Kamuzu Barracks the following day.
In a twist of event, frustrated supporters decided to take the law in their own hands and announced on Tuesday that the team’s executive committee has been dissolved.
The letter dated 19 October, 2016 to the club’s executive committee, copied to the team’s board of trustees, says: “We write to inform you that we concerned supporters have dissolved your committee with immediate effect of the day of this letter.
“We have done this due to the poor performance of our beloved team and Mr Chimwemwe Chipungu is going to take care of the interim committee as a chairman which will be announced later.”
The letter has been signed by all of the club’s 22 sub committees based in Blantyre City.
The supporters also went on to barricade the team’s club house, to try to force the committee to pay the players their salaries.
One of the supporters, who declined to be mentioned, said they believe the players are not giving their best because they haven’t been paid their salaries for some months now.
Malawian club football structure is that it has no specific owners, especially the two teams — Wanderers and Bullets — who command the biggest fan base.
The supporters elect the executive committes. In the case of Wanderers, the elected executive committe is monitored by the board of trustees, who control the affairs of the club.
The executive committee is entrusted with the responsibility of hiring the technical committee, which in turn advices the executive on which players to hire.
Currently the team has three foreign players — Japanese Genki Nakamura, who who seems to have come because the team is sponsored by Be Forward, a car company from Japan.
The other players are Nigerians Fabiano Ozochukwu and Amos Bello, who haven’t made a mark yet mostly they are on the bench because of the system that the team uses.
It seems like the players were forced on the technical panel and they didn’t and still don’t fit in the technical panel’s plans.
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