A GS must be a gentleman

As administrative hubs of domestic football clubs, general secretaries play a crucial role in ensuring that sanity prevails in the game.

It is for this reason that I always wish them well and pray that wisdom should never desert them.

I appreciate that theirs is a demanding job. I appreciate that although most of them operate from car boots, they are a phone call away from the press.

So deep is my respect for these presumed gentlemen that when they stoop low, I choose to fault my eyes and ears.

I still refuse to believe that I heard a GS swearing at the Kamuzu Stadium in a manner that would have left American rapper Eminem green with envy.

In another incident, I can only fault my eyes for that GS who snatched a suspected juju bag from an opposing team official.

I will never trust my sight that I saw a GS of a high football office voluntarily playing bodyguard to a foreign football superstar as they walked onto the Kamuzu Stadium pitch.

Late Whitney Houston must have chosen an amateur actor for The Bodyguard movie.

It all goes back to Malawi football voters. The electorate has unlimited freedom to pick whoever it wants for such a strategic post.

It can be a mere fan or a professional (plucked from other unrelated fields) who, apart from boasting of 10 years experience of watching the English Premier League from the ‘tely’, have no traceable football administration experience.

These are the ones who become overzealous and, listening to them, you can be forgiven for thinking they are mere fans rumbling and arguing just for the sake of it.

I, therefore, understand why some are advocating for a reduction in elected office-bearers in the domestic game.

It sounds logical since once elected, such officials are always at the mercy of the electorate.

Tragically, the electorate does not comprise supporters/shareholders as is the case in the civilised football world, but mere fans with their own agendas.

In fact, the Lilongwe Declaration advocates that clubs must be run by employees who are mandated to oversee secretariats.

Super League of Malawi general secretary Williams Banda urges that clubs must elect office-bearers who have at least three years of experience.

If domestic football is to improve, then the standards must start from the boardroom.

Finally, I wish general secretaries, most of whom are qualified for their positions, all the best.