9 teams pass test
Silver Strikers have fulfilled 100 percent club licensing requirements in the TNM Super League as newly-promoted outfit Ntopwa FC emerged second best with 98 percent.
The two sides are among nine teams that have made the grade following a successful appeal to the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) Club Licencing System (CLS) Committee upon paying K50 000 fine each to join Nyasa Big Bullets and Moyale Barracks, who made the grade on time two weeks ago.
Now the number of fully licensed teams in the 16-team league stands at 11.
However, FAM licensing and compliance manager Casper Jangale said, overall, Bullets, who scored 92 percent, are still considered a side that did well in the exercise followed by Moyale (84 percent) because they were the first to pass the test.
“Silver have fulfilled all the requirements and we applaud them for the feat. However, we encourage teams to make their submissions on time and, as such, we can say they still play second fiddle to Bullets and Moyale, whose compliance did not have to go through the appeal process,” he said.
Silver vice-general secretary Innocent Kadam’manja yesterday said they are excited with their achievement and attributed the delayed submission to the transition process at the Central Bankers.
“We will do our best to maintain the 100 percent record next year,” he said.
“It was just unfortunate that we did not make our submissions on time due to other factors.”
Ntopwa FC owner Isaac ‘Jomo’ Osman yesterday said he felt proud to have defied the odds to outsmart established outfits.
“In fact, we could have achieved this feat without going through the appeal process had FAM made clarifications on all the required documents we were supposed to submit much earlier,” he said.
Silver and Ntopwa made successful appeal for full licences alongside Kamuzu Barracks (97 percent), Mighty Tigers (97 percent), Masters Security, Dwangwa United (95), Be Forward Wanderers (93), Mlatho Mponela (85) and TN Stars (71).
Civil Sporting Club (66.4), Blue Eagles (64) and Chitipa United (60) have acquired provisional licences while Mzuni FC and Karonga United are pending as their files were turned back by the CLS committee and will have to wait for the First Instance Body’s (FIB) consideration next week.
Among the major requirements, the clubs were expected to have reserve and youth teams and developmental programme, infrastructure which requires clubs to have a training base and match venue, administrative personnel that incorporates players contracts, a secretariat and a minimum CAF B coaching licence for the head coach and CAF A licence for the technical director.
They are also supposed to have a bank account.
In the just-ended season, teams such as Nchalo United, Karonga United and Kasungu-based TN Stars were given provisional licences and asked to complete the requirements before the start of the top-flight league’s second round or risk expulsion, but they completed their fixtures without facing any punishment.
But during a club licensing workshop in Lilongwe last month, head of FIB (FAM independent organ responsible for club licensing) Allan Muhome, said they have been tolerant in issuing licences in the past and would take a hard line in the 2019 season. n
