|
Barely a day after being taken to task by Capital City Motel management, the Football Association of Malawi, (Fam) was on Thursday caught up in another administrative scandal as the visiting Ethiopia national football team refused to stay at Capital City Motel where they were booked for a night.
“We are greatly disappointed with the treatment we have been given. When Malawi came to Addis Ababa, we placed them in a five-star hotel. If we compare that to this place, this is a boarding school. Fifa rules stipulate that visiting teams should be booked in five-star hotels. We can’t stay here even for a night,” said leader of the Ethiopian delegation Belay Benailu.
The Ethiopians could not even take an explanation that Lilongwe Hotel— where they were supposed to be booked and the remaining hotels— Capital and Kalikuti hotels have been fully booked.
“We have not come here by surprise. They knew we were coming and could have prepared for our coming,” said the delegation leader.
On another sad note, the Ethiopians were left unattended at the motel for over an hour as Fam officials were reported to be hunting for an alternative place.
Instead it were Flames’ officials, coach Eddington Ng’onamo and team manager John Kaputa, who were trying to reason with the visitors. But the two left for the afternoon training session leaving the visitors without any official.
Later in the afternoon Fam officials came to pick some of the Ethiopian officials to look around for an alternative place in town. When all this was happening, the football association had already paid a K50, 000 cheque to the motel as a deposit for the visitors’ accommodation.
In another sad development, match commissioner for the Saturday match Evariston Kasunga from Zambia was forced to hire a taxi from Lilongwe International Airport to town on Wednesday when he found nobody to welcome him at the airport.
He was later on booked at Capital Hotel after Fam officials had been alerted about his arrival.
As if that was not enough for Fam, the Flames on Thursday to get a feel of the Civo Stadium turf, which was still in bad condition as of the afternoon. The Flames drove back to their training base at Nankhaka ground.
The Zambian match commissioner is also reported to have condemned the pitch, advising Fam to work on it before the match.
Fam’s acting spokesman George Kaudza Masina acknowledged all the problems.
“This is not by design. Everybody know we had financial problems. We were trying to avoid these consequences when we were crying for money. We understand the Ethiopians plight and they just have to bear with us. It’s true Capital City Motel is below Fifa standards but there was nothing we could do. We will put the visitors in a proper hotel today.”
On the match commissioner’s issue, Masina said Fam was not informed about his arrival.
“Referees and match commissioners usually arrive a day before the match and we did not know that Mr Kasunga was landing on Wednesday.
“For the bad condition of the pitch, our member in the central region Steve Msambila is on top of things to make sure the group is ready for the Saturday action. The problem was that there was an agricultural fair at the stadium just before the BP Top 8. But we have been working wit the stadium owners to improve the pitch and by Saturday everything will be in place,” said Masina.
|
