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National football coach Burkhard Ziese has told Football Association of Malawi (Fam) that he will not travel by road to Botswana for the Under-20 second leg Caf’s African Youth Championships clash should the association fail to secure funds for air tickets.
The coach’s comments come after Fam president Walter Nyamilandu’s took the begging bowl to government where he wants to get K6 million for the trip after exhausting all its K22 million allocation for this financial year which ends in June.
Sources within Fam confided in The Nation on Tuesday that the coach has indicated that he should be counted out of the contingent should there be no air transport.
According to the source, the coach has dubbed the road excursion as tiresome and not good for soccer.
“It seems he will not change his mind,” said the source, who pleaded for anonymity.
Ziese also confirmed the development, but refused to shed more light.
“Going by bus would be disappointing because we knew about this trip sometime ago. If the team goes by road, then the team can hardly have any winning chances,” said Ziese.
But Nyamilandu claimed having no knowledge on the issue. “Travel arrangements have not yet been made... That is news to me,” said the Fam boss.
Last year, senior Flames caretaker coach Michael Hennigan expressed disappointment when he and the travelled for 37 hours 45 minutes for an invitational tournament in Mozambique saying: “If we expect the national team to pick up, then we should get serious with our preparations.”
Meanwhile, Fam has shifted to next week the Ziese’s disciplinary hearing on accusation that he took the Under-20 players Blue Elephant—a drinking joint in Blantyre.
Asked what people would say if the body drags on the matter, considering that players took soft drinks and that the team was getting a donation of T-shirts from the premises’ proprietor, Nyamilandu just said he does not want to say more because “everybody is entitled to their opinion.”
The junior Flames will travel to Botswana at the end of this month to defend last weekend’s 2-0. Malawi will meet Lesotho should they beat Tswana to guarantee themselves a place at the tournament’s finals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) later this year.
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