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| Sports |
| New hurdle for Nyamilandu |
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by
Leonard Sharra, 10 November 2004
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09:13:37
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Former MTL Wanderers general secretary and team manager Walter Nyamilandu risks being barred from the Fam presidency race on Saturday if his football playing career will not be interpreted as “involvement in active association football” as required by Article 30.4 of the Fam constitution.
The article says that candidates for Fam executive positions must have served in active association football for not less than five years.
Nyamilandu has been playing football at top level for well over five years but has only served in football administration for three years. Some football and legal experts say the former defender’s years as a soccer player will not be regarded as ‘active association football.’
“The understanding (at) the general assembly in Lilongwe was that one has to be involved as an official — active association football in this context refers to administering football at association level,” said Fam’s legal advisor Maxwell Tembo, who chaired the constitutional amendment proceedings at Lilongwe Technical College on July 24.
Former Fam executive member George Kaudza Masina, who headed the committee that worked on the constitution, concurred with Tembo.
“When we were framing the constitution, we referred to association football as involvement in football administration at affiliate or executive level but certainly not as a player.”
Spokesman for the Fam executive McCollins Chibvunde also made the same point.
“What the statutes mean is that one must have been involved in administration of football at affiliate or executive level for not less than five years. You may recall that before the amendment of Article 30 members queried that any body would claim to have been involved in football administration even after administering at village level. That’s when the wording was changed,” said Chibvunde.
Contacted for his side, Nyamilandu maintained that he satisfied the constitutional requirement: “I read the Article and my interpretation of ‘active association football’ is ‘involvement in active football. At first it was the issue of MSCE and now people are coming up with this issue. The nation will now start wondering what is happening.
“I know people are fearing me but the more they do this the more they campaign for me. I played for Sucoma from 1984 to 86 and UFC between 1991 and 95. From 2000 to 2001 I served as Wanderers general secretary before holding the post of team manager from 2002 to 2003. You can see from this background that I have been in football for half of my life,” he said.
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