One of the biggest problems with Malawi sports, football in particular, is that anyone can get away with anything.
Describing FAM as a domestic mother football governing body, can sometimes, be sheer flattery for the association is too timid, passive and spineless to enforce things that matter. Controlling is the very essence of management. Sadly, beyond empty warnings, FAM cannot just control the game on and off the field of play.
Talk about sleeping on the job. Meanwhile, thugs and fraudsters are thriving in the game. From chaotic transfers, fraud, corruption, hooliganism and clubs failure to get licences, FAM is spineless. Seeing the loopholes, mafia-like administrators have infiltrated local football administration.
They are very smart. Sweet talkers. They wear dark glasses and designer labels. Most tellingly, they leave no trace in any undertaking. It is all word of mouth. There are no documents involved.
Nothing is written.It is a scary underworld of the Mafia; a criminal phenomenon whose roots can be traced to Italy. Murdered in 1979, Italian magistrate Cesare Terranova, before his death left a comprehensive definition of the Mafia.
“The Mafia is oppression, arrogance, greed, self-enrichment, power and hegemony above and against all others. It is not an abstract concept, or a state of mind, or a literary term… It is a criminal organisation regulated by unwritten but iron and inexorable rules… The myth of a courageous and generous ‘man of honour’ must be destroyed, because a mafioso is just the opposite.
Those abreast with the domestic sports/football happenings should relate well with this definition. Oppression of coaches and players is deeply entrenched. Coaches, are in front of players, insulted. Most are made to work without pay.
Some are systematically pushed out on petty reasons by the mafia. Supporters are palm-oiled. Such mafia officials have body guards.Statements change with every twist of the tongue.
They create confusion, dividing so they can rule. They are the first to cry foul for the offence they have committed.All what they say is very calculated; to buy sympathy and hoodwink. They thrive through creating a sense of a looming crisis and desperation. You just cannot catch them for they are too smart they can even use the unsuspecting media. I am scared. You too should be scared. n
