Victory is sweet but fans, please, stop pitch invasion

Of late, Malawian football fans are not doing their clubs any favour. Teams are being heavily punished for the sins of their fans.

Just last week, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) found  Mighty Be Forward Wanderers guilty of bullying a Mangochi Police FC player and bringing the game of football into disrepute and subsequently fined K650,000.

The  charge was that Wanderers displayed unsporting behaviour during the 2016 Carlsberg Cup semi-final match against Mangochi Police on Saturday 27th August 2016 at the Kamuzu Stadium.
Fam contend that Wanderers allegedly failed to take precautionary measures to control their “supporters who invaded the dressing room and tunnel despite being aware and having been advised that they were not allowed to do so.”

The Nomads face yet another disciplinary action after their supporters invaded the pitch after Saturday’s Carlsberg Cup final against Silver Strikers at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.

The Nomads fans indeed were delirious having won the cup through post match penalties. Soon after goalkeer Richard Chipuwa saved Silver’s Mathewss Sibale’s spot kick, the escatic fans jumped the perimeter face, leaving part of it damaged.

They evaded stewards and danced on the pitch with some taking pictures with players.

This is not on, fans. Yes, victory is sweet but restrain yourselves for the good of the game and your club, which unfortunately bears the brunt of your actions.

Pitch invasion is never condoned everywhere. Teams are heavily punished for the actions of their fans and we cannot afford to have teams to be heavily fined.

Such money goes to waste instead of benefiting the player and moreover we are bringing the beautiful game into disrepute.

How many times do we remind each other that sponsors in Malawi usually find any excuse they can find to pull out their purse? Don’t we remember how football suffered some 11 years ago when sponsors said enough is enough and pulled out?

We cannot afford to have a repeat of that. Just recently Standard Bank pulled out their sponsorship of the Challenge Cup. Of course, it was not because of violence but it’s just a reminder that economically,  things are not well with most companies and we should treat those that have remained with kid gloves.

Please, fans, desist from all negative reactions that eventually see our beloved teams being punished over our actions that could have been avoided.

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