Malawian clubs really need to be professional

Malawian football has to move from its amateur status and attain a professional touch as quickly as possible to attract serious investors.

We have lagged behind quite too long because our system is prone to serious abuse and we all turn a blind eye that it’s business as usual.

Take the case of the transfer saga of Jaffalie Chande, for instance, where the two clubs, Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Be Forward Wanderers, were contesting each other over the legality of the player’s contract.

Bullets produced a document that said Chande was contracted to them until August 2017 but Wanderers had only been aware that said the player will be a free agent by August this year.

It wasn’t until Chande himself brought an original that indicated that he signed a one and a half year contract with Bullets on August 14, 2014 and that accordingly his contract with the People’s Team expired on February 13, 2016.

The player is reported to have produced an original looking copy of his contract which appeared to have been signed on August 14, 2014 by himself and former secretary Harold Fote that said the contract was set to expire on February 13, 2016.

A very serious allegation was made by witnesses, Fote and former chairman Kondie Msungama, who trashed the contract that was brought by Bullets and called it a forgery.

The Football Association of Malawi (Fam) disciplinary committee that heard the case found that Chande was legally contracted to Wanderers basing on the player’s supposedly authentic copy of contract he brought forward and supported by both Fote and Msungama.

In the same breath, the Fam committee strongly faulted the two clubs and for posterity’s sake, it recommended that as a legal requirement in this country, players’ contracts should be deposited with both Super League of Malawi (Sulom) and Fam so that in the case of disputes like this, all contracts should tally.

This is where clubs have to adhere to the club licensing requirements which were set by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) by setting up secretariats to keep legal documents and other important team paraphernalia.

The committee also suggested that clubs should also invest in the digitisation of their data at these secretariats.

Football is a serious business and investors can only come in seriously if they see any business potential in the game. Otherwise, the sponsors we have at the moment are there just for some so called corporate responsibility and they pull out at any time they feel so.

In the cases where there is serious business potential to support the game, if one sponsor would opt to pull out, another will quickly fill in the space. That’s how this business strives in other countries.

We need strong footbaĺl administrators with passion to really commercialise the sport, otherwise we will never achieve anything that can attract serious investors who can change the course of the game.

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