Council concerned with inactive associations

Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has expressed its concern over the high number of inactive sports associations.

The council’s acting executive secretary Henry Mereka said this when he gave a review of the just-ended year in an interview.

“One of the challenges that we faced last year was that most associations are not really active.

“They are developing at slow pace and mostly, it’s one or two people that are doing their job,” he said.

Mereka said most of the officials waste time quarrelling.

The council boss also said associations did well in some international tournaments, but in others the performance was disappointing.

“When we participate in tournaments, we expect good results, or, at least something satisfactory and that is an area we need to look into,” he said

Mereka cited the Africa Games, Zone VI Volleyball Championship and Cosafa tournaments as some of the tournaments in which Malawian teams struggled.

However, he said the Queens’ performance at the  African Netball Championship where they were runners-up and a sixth-position finish at the Netball World Cup was satisfactory.

“Flames’ qualification into the  group stages of the 2022 World Cup was also good and, hopefully, they can build up on that. We also had our junior athlete Moneyi Chingaipe named Junior Sports Personality of the Year at the 2019 Southern Africa’s Regional Sports Awards,” said Mereka.

He also expressed the need for more accountability from associations, saying: “We accept that we have little resources, but our point is that from the little resources, we should make the best of it.

“Associations should strive to generate more income and this can only be achieved by coming up with sound strategic plans. By so doing, they should attract corporate partners.

“Some associations do not even have secretariats… You cannot be discussing with a potential sponsor at a car park and expect to secure a deal. So, we need to give ourselves benchmarks. In the absence of such key factors, it is difficult, if not practically impossible, to attract partners or sponsors,” he said.

Malawi Amateur Boxing Association president Pyson Likagwa admitted that they were one of the associations that were hardly active last year, citing lack of funding. “We struggled because we were not funded by Sports Council for three years, but now there is hope as they have resumed funding our programmes,” he said.