Carlsberg Cup final raises record gross K54.5 mil

A record breaking gross of MK54.5 million was raised for the 2017 Carlsberg Cup final which was won by Nyasa Big Bullets aftrr beating their sworn enemies Mighty Be Forward Wanderers 5-3 after postmatch penalties played at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe on Saturday.

The teams and Bingu National Stadium each went away with K10.6 million. And FAM’s share is K8.5 million whilst Malawi National Council of Sports’ share was K2.1 million.

From this collection, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has managed to beat its own record which was set during the Airtel Top 8 final at the same stadium where it grossed MK52.3 million. That final was between Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers in which the Bankers also won after postmatch penalties.

FAM’s Commercial & Marketing Director Limbani Cliff Matola attributed to this massive collection to the fact that this was a very attractive fixture involving old age rivals which draws huge crowd of supporters and also the ggressive marketing and promotion of the match through TV, radio, newspaper and the social media.

“There was also a strong security and gate management system and that the advance ticket selling system worked wonders as MK33.4 million was sold in advance and just about MK21.1 were sales on the actual match day at Bingu National Stadium,” Matola said.

“On this note, we are very delighted to observe that there is increased uptake of advance ticket buying amongst our football fans. Surely and earnestly the landscape is changing.

“And also the professional cash management by FDH Bank helped because they are the ones who managed the ticket sales at the venue. The engagement of Master Security Services to manage the gates was another key game changer in as far as security that only those who had bought the tickets were to enter the stadium.

“We have received numerous calls as feedback that people were very happy with the way security was tightened at the gates. We can only hope to sustain these improved levels of service delivery to our football consumers.”

Matola applauded the teams for accepting to adopt advance match day ticket sales system despite some resistance and that the teams allowed FAM to engage Masters Security Services much as they were not comfortable at the very beginning.

“We continue to peg the right pricing for our game. People bought the advance tickets at K2,000 (which is almost US$2.70) for Open/Covered Stands and at K3,000 (almost US$4.0) on match day. And the VIP tickets were K7,500 (US$10) and K9,000 (US$12) respectively.

“And very important is the fact that the issue of fake tickets was completely eliminated and out of question for this match. From the very onset we promised ourselves to deliver the best cup final match and we believe we have managed to live to people’s expectations; the officiation was simply professional and above board.

“We therefore would like to commend all stakeholders who tirelessly worked very hard to achieve this success. But on a sad note, we would like to sympathise with Mighty Be Forward Wanderers for the damage of their vehicles and injuries of their players by some barbaric and uncivilised individuals disguised as football fans.

“We would want to condemn in strongest terms such savagery acts and encourage the police to secure that the long arm of the law is accordingly applied. We applaud the police for successfully apprehending the suspects who are now at Kanengo Police station.

“Finally, hearty congratulations to Nyasa Big Bullets for being crowned 2017 Carlsberg Cup Champions,” Matola said.

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