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What punishment?
I do not understand Bakili Bullets’ argument that they have deliberately over-priced Maupo Msowoya at K2.5 million. Maupo wants to join Silver Strikers and Bullets say they want to punish the Reserve Bank side. The Bullets are saying that they have done so because Silver ‘stole’ the player at night. While I do not condone underhand dealings between clubs, I do not believe that Bullets position on the matter is right either. Whether Bullets like it or not, Maupo is interested in joining Silver and they cannot change this by being difficult. Bullets should not try to be clever today simply because they are no longer wallowing in money as was the case last season. When the team had former president Bakili Muluzi’s cash to spend last season, they bought players from all over the place using underhand dealings and no one raised hell or made unpalatable pronouncements. The Bullets executive committee should just find ways of raising money and offer better conditions of service to their players. That is how you keep an employee. You do not force him to stay using funny tactics. It does not work.
House on fire
I am not surprised that Fam has failed to arrange for any friendly for Flames in the countdown to the Tunisia clash next week. It was too late to start making arrangements at that point. The funny part of it all is that Fam secretariat knew about the Tunisia game long time ago. If the secretariat wanted the national team to play more friendlies than just against Zimbabwe, then they could have arranged them long time ago. I really do not know why Fam refuses to be modern and produce a synchronised programme for its activities for a whole season as other associations do. The secretariat cannot complain of lack of personnel because I believe that has been dealt with. There are some new faces at Fam. I would have hoped that it would translate into results but apparently it has not. Flames lie at the base of their group with three points. It has been over 20 years since the team participated in any major tournament. I would have thought that a clear plan spelling out the goal of how this can be reversed, would have been in place by now. This should have included an arrangement for friendlies. We have a long way to go.
Why not Mourinho?
A reader of this column, apparently a Chelsea fan, queried me on Saturday why I did not sing any praises for the team’s manager Jose Mourinho who brilliantly engineered Barcelona’s fall in the Champions League last two weeks. When I answered the reader that the fellow on the next column has done it to my satisfaction, he was not convinced. In fact, he arranged that we meet to discuss the same at some place, an appointment I regretted missing. I have never doubted that Mourinho is a good coach. His cause has also been greatly assisted by Roman Abramovich’s money. I only wish he could not be as arrogant as he is. And talking about Champions League, I was also inundated with messages from some readers apparently condoling me for Manchester United exit from the competition at the hands of AC Milan. All I can say is that Man United met a mature team with experience. Watching them raise their games at a point they wanted, left me dumbfounded. United relies heavily on movement normally instigated by Christiano Ronaldo which was not there during both legs. He was marked out. United is a team for the future as far as Europe is concerned. It lacks experience. Given three years, I do not see why they cannot lift the Cup again as they did in 1999 especially that it is plastered with young talent.
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Email: georgekasakula@yahoo.com
gkasakula@nationmalawi.com
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