Malawi will not hire top quality expatriate coach – FAM

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) will decide on Saturday on hiring the new national team coach so that he can guided the Flames to the African Nations Championship qualifiers starting in April but ruled out prospects of having a top-quality tactician owing to financial hiccups.

FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said the association the Saturday meeting will discuss “the position of national coach.”

Nyamilandu, however, said some of the applicants for the Flames vacant post of head coach  are top-quality coaches.

He said FAM will not shortlist the high-profile coaches because of limitations in funding their perks.

“We will have to pick coaches within our means,” said Nyamilandu.

The FAM president said the decision to hire an expatriate coach will wait for the nod of State President Peter Mutharika as Flames coach is paid by government through the Malawi National Council of Sports.

Expatriate coaches that have shown interest in the Flames coaching job are reportedly demanding a minimum of K9 million monthly salaries.

If President Mutharika approves the hiring of a foreign coach under the 50-50 cost sharing proposal, FAM will have to cough around K4.5 million every month.

“We cannot afford to sustain such an arrangement,” said Nyamilandu.

The K9 million excludes other expenses like house allowance, a car, fuel and other benefits the coach would demand.

The expatriate perks are four times what the other local coaches FAM engaged in the past using funding from government—Ernest Mtawali, Young Chimodzi, Kinnah Phiri and Jack Chamangwana—were getting.

FAM wants a long-term contract—preferably three years—with the expatriate coach.

But football anlyst Charles Nyirenda who once served as FAM secretary geenral  said priority should be  on  tackling the root cause of dwindling standards of football.

“Personally I have my doubts about our national team prospects being far better under an expatriate coach. If FAM thinks that short-term measures can bring quick success, let them hire a foreign coach. But if history is to guide us, the better results ever achieved by our national teams came when local coaches—Henry Moyo, Reuben Malola, Mathews Mwenda and Kinnah Phiri were at the helm,”  Nyirenda is on record saying

Nyamilandu could not disclose applicants for the Malawi coaching job.

Meanwhile, Gerald Phiri Snr is the caretaker coach for the Flames.