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| Sports |
| Sports minister lashes out at FA |
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by
George Kasakula, 19 August 2004
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12:45:10
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Sports Minister Henry Chimunthu Banda was on Tuesday at the throat of Football Association of Malawi (Fam), accusing it of not planning for anything in the administration of the game in the country.
“All Fam does is to look for funding from government for the Flames. The main problem confronting soccer today in Malawi is that there is no plan,” said Chimunthu Banda when opening a Needs Assessment and Long Term Plan Workshop for 2005-08 for Fam in Blantyre.
He said everything the association does is geared towards the Flames only, adding talent identification is non existent in the association’s vocabulary.
Chimunthu Banda said: “If we do not plan, we are putting unnecessary pressure on government, which is forced to release money at short notice to fund Flames assignments.”
The minister also lashed out at the association for painting a bad picture that government is responsible for the punishment that Fifa meted out on Fam by diverting its aid direct to Chiwembe Goal Project after government refused a tax waiver on the project.
“When Fam approached government to ask for a tax waiver for the Goal Project, they were told to make it a government project. They did not accept because they thought government would take credit for it.
“But that was not the intention. We wanted to assist. Because they refused, they paid K16 million for land for the project, yet it could have been free if they had asked government. They have also been paying tax on the project. There are shortcuts to government procedures,” said Chimunthu Banda.
He also accused the association of entering competitions without government approval through Sports Council, and yet they still expect government to fund the ventures.
“When Ethiopia were here to play the women football national team, we were told when they had already arrived. Fam is not an independent entity, they must follow the laws of the land. They must follow the Sports Council Act,” fumed Chimunthu Banda.
Fam spokesman McCollings Chibvunde, who also attended the workshop, concurred with the minister on the problems but pushed the buck to the old Fam executive.
“Those problems were with the old executive. When we came into office in January we submitted both short and long term plans covering the Under-17, 20, 23 teams. The plans were presented to both Sports Council and the ministry,” he said.
Chibvunde also agreed with the minister that the old committee botched on the Chiwembe Project.
“When the project was being starting there was a committee that included people from Sports Council and the ministry. Members from Fam were not happy with the arrangement because they thought government will take credit for the project,” said Chibvunde.
Coordinator of the workshop Ashfold Mamelodi said Fifa has embarked on the plan because it believes football cannot be run on adhoc basis.
He advised Fam not to participate in any tournaments if it has no money to do it.
“Developing football is not developing the Flames. It is developing the youth who will be the future Flames. Fifa money will be for the youth and not for Flames,” said Mamelodi, who is also general secretary for regional football governing body Cosafa.
He said the plan, which will guide the operations of the association up to 2008 will focus on youth football, technical aspects of the game, women football, men’s competition, refereeing, administration and marketing.
The workshop ended on Wednesday.
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