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| Sports |
| Fam gets away with light fine |
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by
Garry Chirwa, 07 January 2005
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12:13:07
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Fam should be thanking its soccer gods for escaping a hefty fine for the violence that occurred during and after the Caf Champions League match between Bakili Bullets and Enyimba at Chichiri Stadium in October last year. The financially cleaned-out association has only been slapped with a meagre US $3,000 (about K330,000) fine by Caf.
The violence, which overflowed to some parts of the city, was one of the worst in the history of Malawian soccer and about thirty vehicles including the Bullets’ bus, were smashed by hooligans while several people were injured.
Fam general secretary Roosvelt Mpinganjira confirmed the development on Thursday and said it is the obligation of the association to honour the fine.
“It is the duty of the association to face the punishment because it was an international game, but we will be calling Bakili Bullets which was a host team for a meeting on the issue,” said Mpinganjira.
Bullets general secretary Ophman Kondowe also confirmed the development but said his club has nothing to do with the punishment.
“Being an international game it was the responsibility of the national association to ensure adequate security at the stadium and it is Fam that will pay the fine.
“However, we condemn the perpetrators of the nasty incidents that occured on that day which have led to the fine and as a club we take a firm stand against acts of violence,” said Kondowe.
Fans threw missiles into the pitch which included stones and bottles forcing the referee to stop the game for over five minutes.
The referee collected some of the missiles which he gave to the match commissioner as part of evidence of the nasty scenes.
Recently the world soccer governing body Fifa also fined Fam about K1.1 million for the violence that occured during the joint World Cup/Africa Nations Cup qualifier against continental champions Tunisia at the same venue last year.
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