National Sports

Ex-Silver boss eyes FAM presidency

 

Former Silver Strikers FC chairperson McDonald Mafuta-Mwale has expressed interest to vie for the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) presidency during elections in 2019.

He is the first individual to declare interest for the hot-seat almost two years after the incumbent president Walter Nyamilandu, who has been at the helm for 12 years, was re-elected and said he would not stand again in the next elections.

Mafuta-Mwale: I will stand

Yesterday, the director of research and statistics at the Reserve Bank of Malawi said he has decided to affirm his aspiration for the post “to make sure Malawi football is well organised and professionally run as business.”

He said: “I will stand for FAM presidency in 2019. I will soon meet all the football stakeholders to sell them this idea because I believe I have the potential of making Malawi football professional, not only on paper.”

Nyamilandu said Mafuta-Mwale is free to contest for the post, but he warned that it would not be easy for anyone to fill into his ‘big shoes.’

“I am not a threat to anyone except that candidates aspiring for FAM presidency will have a big task to fill up the big shoes,” he said. “With me stepping out of the way, new candidates will emerge and contest for the position. Therefore, Mafuta Mwale should not kid himself that he will have a free ride.”

Soccer analyst George Kaudza-Masina said people of Mafuta-Mwale’s calibre are the ones needed to steer the FAM ship.

“We need people who are able to command respect in society. If football is to be run as a business, it needs people such as Mafuta-Mwale, who can be trusted by the cooperate world,” he said.

“In Nyamilandu, FAM has an excellent leader, but his lieutenants are not that good. As such, if Mafuta-Mwale is to be successful, let him come up with a team that can be trusted and respected. Otherwise, he is to be trusted taking into account the way he transformed Silver Strikers when he was the club’s boss.”

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