FAM plans to adopt govt minimum wage

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has said once club licensing is effected, it will propose the adoption of government minimum monthly wage  of K15 000 for Super League players.

FAM club licensing manager Casper Jangale said although 80 percent of teams in the flagship league have contracts with players, some of them do not fully honour their contractual obligations.

“After going through copies of contracts and registration forms that were submitted by clubs last season, we established that some teams pay their players as low as K8 000 which is peanuts and we have already held preliminary discussions with Sulom on the possibility of adopting the government minimum wage.

“There are also some teams that do not fully honour contractual obligations. Any team joining the Super League is supposed to be financially sound because it is supposed to be a semi-professional,” said Jangale.

However, the FAM official partly blamed the players for suffering in silence.

“Some players know what they are entitled to, but choose to suffer in silence for fear of being victimised by their clubs while others are ignorant of what they are supposed to do when faced with such situations.

“Yet there are others who are easily induced by club officials’ sweet talk. But if clubs are to get the best from players then their welfare is of utmost importance and, therefore, having a minimum wage for players will help inject professionalism  in the way we run our football,” said Jangale.

But while confirming the discussion with Jangale, Sulom GS Williams Banda said as at now, the league cannot push teams to adopt government minimum wage because players do not get a salary.

“What they get are mere [upkeep] allowances. However, the licensing is a welcome development. We just need to strategically implement it phase by phase.

“There is need to inculcate the commercialisation which will make teams financially viable,” said Banda.

Nation on Sunday has also established that although FAM claimed that teams which fail to submit copies of players’ contracts would not be allowed to participate in the top-flight league, there were a few last season such as Karonga United that did not meet the requirement but were  allowed to take part based on the registration forms they submitted to Sulom.

According to our findings, Karonga indicated in the registration forms that it would pay players upkeep allowances in the ranges of K8 000 to K10 000, a weekly training allowance of K800 and a K5 000 bonus for a win.

But one of Karonga’s key players Green Msowoya, whose registration form indicated a K10 000 monthly upkeep, said he was never paid an upkeep allowance during the team’s stint in the top-flight league.

“I do not know anything about the monthly upkeep. I remember being paid K5 000 as signing on fees when we signed the registration fees from then on, I was never paid a penny as monthly upkeep.

“And at the time of signing the registration form, the club had also not indicated anything about my monthly upkeep, so I assume it must have been done behind my back after I had already signed the document which is very unfortunate,” said Msowoya.

However, Karonga’s GS Andy Khunga said he could not comment on the issue because at the time the registration process was being done, he was not yet part of the team’s administration.

Jangale said in consultation with Sulom, they will conduct workshops for Super League players to sensitise them on the need to have contracts and what it entails.  n