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Bakili Bullets football club sponsor, former President Bakili Muluzi is reported to have become furious with the management of the club over reports that the club was not remitting to Fam, Sports Council and government’s shares from the games that fans were allowed free entry courtesy of the former head of state.
The former president is further reported to have threatened to withdraw sponsorship for both Bullets and the K16.5m Bakili Muluzi Super League after hearing about the wrangles between his club and the other stakeholders.
Muluzi’s advisor on youth and sports matters Henry Moyo confirmed the development in an interview on Wednesday, saying the president changed his mind after careful consideration.
“It is true the sponsor was not happy with what was going on. He almost withdrew his sponsorship but being an understanding person, he changed his mind. As sponsor, he can’t give the money to Fam, government or Council. He has to deal with his club and the club’s executive was supposed to remit shares to the other parties.
“Government needs the money to maintain the stadium and the other parties too deserve their money. When he (Muluzi) read the paper, he got so concerned. It was like he was never paying the money on behalf of fans, who were entering free. But knowing he is the only hope left in football, he did not proceed with his intentions,” said Moyo.
Moyo, who is a respected former national coach, added he checked with BB chairman Hassam Jussab to find out what was going on and that Jussab told him the money had been paid.
The Bullets’ boss could not be reached for comment but his vice treasurer Kondi Msungama assured that such a thing would not happen again.
“Indeed our sponsor has been paying the money in advance as he did last week but there was a communication breakdown within our (club’s) ranks. After receiving the money, our executive could sit down and look at priority areas. We were also discussing our budget with Mr (Yusuf) Matumula, the head of the issues related to the Caf tournament.
“Because of the long chain and other urgent needs, we could not honour payments for other parties. But I can assure you that from last week onwards, everybody will be happy because the club’s treasury will now be handling these issues. You will also hear from Fam, government and Council that we paid them in advance last week,” said Msungama.
But Msungama, who stressed he was commenting because the issue related to his department, accused Sports Council of pocketing an additional sum on top of what was paid to the club.
“We paid Council K50,000 ($463) from Sunday’s game but they took over K12,000 from money paid on VIP and Covered Stands. We don’t know why they did this.”
Government, Council and Fam confirmed receiving K171,000, K50,000 and K150,000 respectively from Bullets but the parties expressed discomfort over the manner the money was paid.
“What we are insisting at is that Bullets should tell us how much they got from their sponsor. The club doesn’t want to come out clear on this but we all deserve to know whether the amounts they paid us represent the figure they got from the sponsor. Together with Fam and Council, we are trying to see if we can meet bwana (Muluzi).
“It can help if the money is paid directly to the ground owners who would do the proper allocations. But that has to be done through the Minister,” said Director of Sports in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture Bester Kalombo.
Council account Nelson Phiri concurred with Kalombo adding Fam was failing to exercise its powers on Bullets.
“The problem is Fam is not strong enough to handle Bullets. We have danced to the club’s tune this time and next time they (Bullets) will dance to our tune,” he said.
The Bullets are yet to remit levies from Bullets’ games against Zanaco and Orlando Pirates in which Muluzi also paid for fans.
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