CAF shuns Malawian clubs

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has excluded Malawian clubs from the list of 37 African teams invited to a two-day licensing and professionalism seminar which is scheduled to open today in Cape Town, South Africa.

Clubs from Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia have been invited but FAM general secretary Suzgo Nyirenda, through whose office local clubs were supposed to get such invitations, yesterday said no Malawian team had been invited.

“I know about that seminar but they have invited only clubs that are participating in CAF competitions,” Nyirenda said. Bakili Bullets were the last domestic side to play in CAF Champions League in 2004.

CAF website reported yesterday the seminar “seeks to equip participants with the requisite knowledge and information about club licensing and the tenets of the fast-growing professionalism in football.”

Topics to be discussed at the seminar, the first of its kind, include professional development of clubs: managerial and finance, infrastructural development of clubs and stadia, youth policy, TV rights, broadcasting and production of matches in Africa, according to www.cafonline.com.

The meeting, which CAF president Issa Hayatou and Danny Jordaan, president of South Africa Football Associations (Safa), will preside over, will also look at marketing of competitions, sponsorship for clubs, legal issues concerning clubs and the status of players.

Zimbabwe Dynamos chairperson Kenny Mubaiwa is among those invited for the seminar whose expenses have been paid for by CAF.

“It’s an honour to be part of this event. Not all clubs were invited to this seminar and it makes us feel happy as the Dynamos family that we are one of the elite clubs that have been recognised by CAF,” Mubaiwa told www.herald.co.zw on Wednesday.