Clubs cry foul over Mzuzu Stadium gate management

Clubs have expressed displeasure with gate collections for Super League matches involving Nyasa Big Bullets against Moyale Barracks FC and Mzuzu University (Mzuni) FC played at Mzuzu Stadium over the weekend.

Gate collections summary sheets we have seen show that K8 730 530 was realised from the two games.

The teams feel the amount is on the lower side considering the large turnout and gate fee hike from K500 to K1000 for open stands and K1000 to K1500 for covered stand.

Bullets match against Moyale on Saturday grossed K4 145 000 of which each team got K833 712.50.

Sunday’s game against Mzuni realised K4 585 530 and each team received K934 760.72.

Moyale assistant team manager Gerald Kanje said they were expecting more than K8 million from the game.

“It is annoying that the gate collections were lower than what we expected. It is surprising that during the Presidential Cup semi-finals against Be Forward Wanderers we earned K1 335 000.00 at the same venue, but the turnout was small compared to this game,” he said.

Mzuni general secretary Khumbo Kemwenda said Super League of Malawi (Sulom) has to explain what went wrong for the game which was highly patronised.

“The patronage was good. The tickets were sold out. How come a small amount was realised?” he wondered.

Bullets general secretary Kelvin Moyo also had similar sentiments.

“Like other teams, we also expected more than what has been disclosed looking at the big support we got from Mzuzu soccer lovers. It is important that this must be explained,” he said.

According to Mzuzu City Council ( MCC ) chief executive officer Mcloud Kadammanja, the stadium has a seating capacity of 17 000.

However, only 8500 tickets were printed for the two games.

Sulom general secretary Williams Banda said they will investgate the matter.

“We are set to institute a commission of inquiry on the Mzuzu Stadium gate collection incident. If we find evidence that fraud really took place, we will take appropriate action. That will be done soon after the games’ post-mortem meeting to take place soon,” he said. n