FAM postpones the Airtel Top 8 semifinal between Silver Strikers and MAFCO to first hear Wanderers’ appeal

Following the threat from Mighty Wanderers that if Football Association of Malawi (FAM) fails to grant the Nomads their right to appeal over the determination made by the disciplinary committee, they would seek for an injunction stopping the semifinal of the Airtel Top 8 — FAM has bowed down and postponed the match between Silver Strikers and MAFCO scheduled for Sunday, December 10 to a later date.

A press release dated today, December 9 from FAM says its appeals committee has commenced the appeals process on the FAM disciplinary committee determination on the appeal by Wanderers against FAM competitions committee.

“Wanderers expressed intention to appeal against the FAM disciplinary committee’s determination which upheld the decisions by the FAM competitions Committee in relation to events during the 2023 Airtel Top quarterfinal first leg between Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers at the Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe on 23rd September 2023.

“Wanderers were on Friday, 8th December 2023 served with the disciplinary committee motivated decision and have four days to submit their grounds of appeal whose hearing is scheduled for Wednesday 13th December 2023.”

On the other hand, FAM says it has commenced disciplinary proceedings against Wanderers following their no show at Kamuzu Stadium to fulfil their second leg of the 2023 Airtel Top 8 quarterfinal which was called off on Wednesday, December 6.

“As per Article 10.6 of the 2023 Airtel Top 8 Rules & Regulations, such failure resulted in Wanderers team losing the match by two goals to zero (2-0).

Wanderers have thus been invited to provide the FAM secretariat “with its position in relation to the two charges of failure to show up at the venue according to scheduled time contrary to Article 10.6 of the 2023 Airtel Top 8 Rules & Regulations and behaving in a way that brings the name of the game of football into disrepute contrary to Article 13.2.d of the FIFA Disciplinary Code”.

In waiting for these issues to be solved, FAM thus postpones the Airtel Top semi-final between Silver Strikers and MAFCO, which — if it could have been allowed to be played, Wanderers were ready to “seek remedial action in the civil courts — including but not limited — to securing an injunctive relief or an injunction order to stop the 2023 Airtel Top 8 competitions from being played until our appeal has been heard and determined”.

This was from a letter that Wanderers lawyers, Makiyi, Kanyenda & Associates wrote on Thursday, December 9, saying the club received an email at 11:10hrs on Sunday, December 3 of an abridged version of the determination by the FAM disciplinary committee that said “a full determination will follow shortly”.

But till Thursday, Wanderers hadn’t been furnished with the full determination despite “repeated written requests” on Monday and Tuesday, December 4 & 5 as required of Article 116 of FAM Disciplinary Code that provides for aggrieved party to an appeal.

Wanderers quote Article 14 of the 2023 Airtel Top 8 Rules & Regulations that says any team dissatisfied with the decision of the competitions committee shall have the right to appeal.

On Wednesday, the referee waited for the 30 minutes before blowing the whistle to call off the match after the no show by Wanderers After Wanderers and as per article 10.6 of the 2023 Airtel Top 8 Rules & Regulation, they lost the match 0-2 and and 0-4 on aggregate as they were also declared 2-0 losers in the first leg for causing match abandonment.

Wanderers are challenging all four counts of the charge sheet which FAM laid against them as regards to the abandonment of the first leg of the Airtel Top 8 on September 23 that also led to violence and have been losing the appeals they have made.

A determination by FAM competitions & marketing committee found the Nomads guilty to all counts laid against them right from the start of match abandonment; failure to prevent their supporters from displaying of unsporting behaviors and bringing the game of football and the name of the sponsor into disrepute contrary to Article 67 of the FAM Disciplinary Code.

The committee thus maintains after considering the nature of abandonment the match has been awarded to Silver Strikers at 2-0 despite that the referee ended the match at 2-1 — in line with the Rules and Regulations of the Airtel Top 8 competition.

For the actions of the supporters in their involvement or inciting violence a fine of K500,000 has been imposed or a ban as per the discretion of the Committee and a further K2 million fine for bringing the game of football into disrepute contrary to Article 13 (2) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.

The Nomads argue that the determination was not made in the spirit of fair play having noted that the cause of the matter was a bad decision by the referee during their first leg match.

In the dying minutes of the first leg at 1-1, the referee Godfrey Nkhakananga clearly blew for handball and as Wanderers defenders relaxed, Silver players went ahead towards goal and scored.

Nkhakananga changed his mind and blew for goal, prompting Wanderers players to protest the decision and was compounded by the invasion of the pitch by the Nomads’ officials, who reportedly influenced the players not to continue with play.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!