Ball in APM’s court
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has finalised its lobbying drive for an expatriate coach with the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Culture and the ball is now in President Peter Mutharika’s court to make a determination.
The determination will be made after the Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Culture Henry Mussa presents a report to the President.
Mussa yesterday confirmed that his ministry is in receipt of the proposal which FAM filed earlier this week.
“Before the end of the week, I shall have acted upon FAM’s proposal and submit it to the State President for his determination,” he said.
The minister said he is optimistic that the determination by the President will not take time.
However, Mussa said it is a shame that over 50 years after attaining independence, the soccer fraternity has failed to produce a professional coach that the nation can look up to.
“It is sad that we still have to hunt for an expatriate coach,” he said.
FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda also confirmed having submitted the proposal on Tuesday.
“Of course, there were other areas that we were asked to review and that was done.
“We consulted thoroughly and engaged officials from Malawi National Council of Sports [MNCS] as well as the ministry and we acted as per their advice to review the motivation paper and the anticipated budgetary requirements for the expatriate coach,” he said.
Among other things, FAM has offered to meet 50 percent of the expatriate coach’s package.
FAM president Walter Nyamilandu recently said they are hoping to have a coach in place by end of the month.
“Any [further] delays will be counter-productive, but we cannot take shortcuts, we need to follow the procedures,” he said.
The incoming coach’s first assignment will be the Championship of African Nations (Chan) preliminary round away tie against Madagascar on April 14 while the return leg is slated for a week later.
