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| Sports |
| 10 clubs gang up against Sulom |
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by
Leonard Sharra, 20 January 2007
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08:00:59
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At least 10 Super League clubs have ganged up against the Super League of Malawi (Sulom) and lined up 10 charges against its leadership, which they intend to dethrone during the long awaited polls slated for Blantyre next week.
This came to light at a meeting of Central Region-based clubs held in Lilongwe earlier this week where the clubs endorsed their candidates for the positions of president, vice president, general secretary and treasurer.
Officials from Eagle Beaks, Blue Eagles, Civo United, Silver Strikers, newly-promoted Appolo United, representatives from Big Bullets, Dwangwa United, Nkhata Bay Police, Red Lions and Moyale Barracks attended the meeting and unanimously endorsed Blue Eagles chairman senior assistant commissioner Innocent Botoman for the position of Sulom president.
Some of accusations levelled against Sulom include failure by the leadership to call for elections or seek a fresh mandate from clubs when the executive’s term expired in December 2005; prolonging of the 2006 TNM Super League season, when there was room to end the season in time; failure by Sulom to pay referees despite getting officiation fees from clubs and an administration allocation from sponsors.
The club officials also accused outgoing president Henry Chibowa of single handedly appointing Jabbar Alide as vice president after the death of Brother Nthenda, favouring his old team MTL Wanderers in certain decisions, misusing a vehicle donated by former State President Bakili Muluzi and threatening clubs that the TNM sponsorship would be withdrawn if he is voted out of office.
Contacted for his reaction on the charges and plans to oust him during the elections on Monday, Chibowa said he was in a meeting, which he said would last the whole day.
“If it is to do with Sulom, contact the general secretary [Chris Kamphinda-Banda],” he said.
However, the Sulom boss was quoted in one of the Sunday papers as saying people were out to tarnish the image of the current executive ahead of the elections.
“I know people are going to say a lot of things but our work will speak for us,” he was quoted as saying.
On his part, Kamphinda-Banda wondered why the clubs were bad-mouthing the league now after praising the executive for a job well done.
“It is the same clubs that have appreciated the way we run the league, why is there a change of heart now? People know that the TNM Super League has been one of the best run leagues in this part of Africa. Check what is happening in the other national leagues,” he said.
The outgoing general secretary, who declared he would seek re-election alongside his boss, also said people know why the league season was prolonged. He also said the executive could not have left office before winding up sponsorship issues with TNM but did not say why the executive never sought a fresh mandate from stakeholders. Of course Fam president gave the incumbent executive the go ahead to extend their mandate.
On the issue of referees, Kamphinda Banda said the Sulom executive found a huge debt of about K400,000 for referees left by Fam after assuming office in 2004 and that the referees’ budget for this year shot above the ceiling.
“Who doesn’t have debts? Some of the clubs also owe us money, which could have enabled the league clear the referees’ debt.
“We had to clear that debt by instalments. We also introduced a system of interchanging referees in the three regions and that ate into the budget. We had to cater for transport, accommodation and game perks for travelling referees,” said Kamphinda, who declined to comment on issues targeted at his boss.
Former Sulom boss Hastings Kapenuka, who now heads the Southern Region Football League, was endorsed as vice president with William Banda of newly promoted Appolo United and Big Bullets general secretary Ophman Kondowe confirmed as candidates for the positions of general secretary and treasurer respectively.
The meeting also nominated former Moyale Barracks general secretary Major Lewis Mwase, now based at Malawi Defence Force headquarters, former Silver team manager Gibson Mkanda, Dwangwa United’s Johnny Mdokhwe and Civo’s Nelson Ngalonde as Central Region candidates for executive member positions.
In the North, only general secretary for relegated Mzuzu Central Hospital (MCH) Brian Damba and outgoing Sulom representative in the region Julius Mithi have expressed interest to contest. However, Damba who is vying for general secretary in the Super League body, may have slim chances of winning since relegation bound teams are not eligible to vote.
Northern Region Football League (NRFL) said so far, nobody from the region has officially contacted them expressing interest to stand in the coming Sulom elections.
Meanwhile, Southern Region teams have said they will meet next week to nominate their candidates.
Article 12, Section 2 of the Sulom constitution says each club shall be represented by three officials and each shall have one vote. All executive committee members shall have one vote each.
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