All hail Premeirship: Woe to Malawi football
Chelsea: English Premiership current league leaders
The English premier league finally got underway over the weekend and Malawi’s football is set on edge.
The premiership has been described as arguably the best football league in the world by the English press- rating it above Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A.
Who can dispute this fact? Three teams from this league were in the semi finals of the European champion’s league last season.
To prove the superiority of the premier league, the cup final was an all-English affair. What are the effects of this great league to Malawi’s football?
The one problem that stands above them all is the patronage to our local games when the premiership teams are in action.
A BBC documentary unveiled some negative consequences of the popular league to African football.
The documentary featuring Tanzania, showed Manchester United and Arsenal of the premier league playing on the same day as top Tanzanian clubs were also fighting for points in their own league.
The stadium in Tanzania was half empty while pubs were full of celebrating soccer fans watching the premiership giants playing on TV screens.
The empty stadium in Tanzania meant a loss in revenue to the local clubs.
In Malawi, a friend of the Timau Crew followed Manchester United to South Africa recently during their pre-season friendlies.
Air ticket, hotel charges and gate fees all that money could have done a great deal to the begging hands of Michiru Castles or Sammy United.
The premiership has distracted Malawi’s soccer fans from their own local clubs.
When the BBC asked the former head of state, Dr Bakili Muluzi what he was going to do in his retirement, his answer was simple, to watch his team Manchester united playing. Why not Bullets or Super Escom?
This is how the premier league is driving us away from home.
With a more welcoming eye, there are some throw-ins from the premier league to Malawi worth mentioning.
One would not give a red card to the fact that by watching the premiership teams, Malawian football coaches and players have had a chance of seeing how the game of football is played at a professional level hence improving the game locally.
Grand Slam Sunday! (This is when the top four teams clash on the same day) The whole world is at a stand still, once said the English press – this is how exciting the English premiership is so much that Malawian women now love the game of football.
Our women these days can now talk soccer and support a football club – thanks to the English Premiership.
What makes the English Premiership click? Apart from the financial muscle within this football league, its’ organization is very good.
Some heads came together and made up the premier league, with time it became successful.
We strongly feel the Super League of Malawi (Sulam) can take a leaf or two from the Premiership and develop our game.
The improvement will not take place tomorrow, it never happened in one day in England, but as we continue to watch the Premier League, we hope Sulam shall also pick up.
The English Premiership is back, the Grand Slam Sunday is here, and the whole world once again will be at a stand still.
The Timau Crew believes that a close contact with the Premiership shall improve the Super League of Malawi and by extension, our game of football.
We dedicate this article to Henry Chibowa, the Sulam President, and we wish him all the best as he strives to improve the game of football in Malawi.
We also dedicate this article to Boniface Magula the unsung hero of Timau.
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Comments (4 posted):
How can one waste his/her precious resources on less gratifying thing (domestic league) while he/she has a very satisfying alternative. Unless something is done to our domestic league system, it will continue being second or even fifth best.
When it becomes good, one will not need to market the league. People are very rational beings, they will start following it. How were people following it in the old days? Whenever big teams were meeting, tension could start right at home even a week before the game.
These days even in rural areas where people do not have access to DStv, people have lost the passion they had of the league. They don'* even know when which teams will be meeting.
The major contributing factor is lack of discipline among so called players. In those days people could dream of just meeting a super league player, the likes of Lawrence Waya, Mavuto Lungu, Young Chimodzi and many more. These days who can admire meeting a player who instead of investing in his career is busy boosing pa Stereo pa Kamba, or ali zandizandi akuchokera kuntonjani ku Ndirande or ku Chilobwe. Worse still you can'* know who is playing for which team in a season. Reason, we just have transitory players who are here this season and next season are down because of ntonjani and the like.
Go to English league, people like Giggs, Toure, Gerrald and many more, they have been there and you can follow them easily. We used to follow domestic league when it used to retain players. But today it is just a waste of time.
Unless some seriousness comes in following domestic league will just be a waste of time whenever other leagues are in session.
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