FAM to be fully in charge of coaches
Malawi Government has said it will change the current system whereby Flames coaches are employed by government.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports Alex Mseka faulted the current system whereby the coaches are hired and managed by Football Association of Malawi (FAM) but sign employment contracts with government.
“We want to see if the vote for the coaches can go to FAM through Sports Council so that they [FAM] should be fully responsible. Otherwise this scenario whereby the previous coaches [Kinnah Phiri, Young Chimodzi Snr and Jack Chamangwana] were fired by FAM and had to be retained by government is not good at all because it causes a lot of confusion.
“So, we are trying to see if we can come up with modalities whereby the next permanent coach [es] should be under the responsibility of FAM through Sports Council,” said Mseka.
He also said the issue was supposed to be tabled at a meeting held Wednesday, but the council was yet to get communication from FAM.
However, FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda said their proposed K500 million (about $1.25m) budget includes a package for an expatriate coach and his assistants.
“In the budget that we presented there is still an element of an expatriate coach because during the last meeting we had with government, it was agreed that our next permanent coach would be an expatriate.
“Even though at a later stage the Minister [of Youth Development and Sports] was quoted as saying the move to hire an expatriate had been shelved until the economy picks up, we do not have official communication from government to that effect and that is why our proposal is for an expatriate.
“Suffice to say that should the interim coaches make the grade during their probation then they will be offered contracts based on the proposed package that was submitted to government,” said Nyirenda.
Neverthless, the FAM CEO said they are happy with government’s move to give them full responsibility of the coaches.
“The previous arrangement created some technical and legal problems,” said Nyirenda.
On his part, FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said they expect government to normalise the situation since the three redeployed regional coaches are still enjoying the package meant for Flames coaches.
“There is already a vote for the national team coaches that is still being given to members of the previous coaching panel [Kinnah, Chimodzi and Chamangwana].
“We, therefore, expect that government will normalise the situation in the next financial year starting in July by creating a separate vote for the regional coaches.
“But if they [government] want us to come up with fresh packages then the benchmark is what regional coaches are receiving because, as I said, that vote was specifically created for national coaches, but if we are looking at hiring an expatriate then it will be different because an expatriate’s minimum monthly wage is $15 000 [almost K5.9 million],” said Nyamilandu.
He added: “But we cannot be talking about an expatriate coach now because if the interim coaches make the grade during the probation period then there will be no need for an expatriate.”
Government endorsed FAM’s decision to fire coach Kinnah, his deputy Chimodzi and technical adviser Chamangwana, but redeployed them to regional offices of the Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) as regional coaches in February in a move that was viewed as a deliberate ploy to avoid compensating them in millions of kwacha since their contracts were still running.
It is reported that the monthly package for the permanent Flames coaching panel members comes up to K2.3 million (about $5 750).
After the removal of Kinnah, Chimodzi and Chamangwana, FAM in consultation with Sports Council and government hired an interim coaching panel comprising Eddington Ng’onamo as head coach with Patrick ‘General’ Mabedi and Ernest ‘Wire’ Mtawali as his deputies.
Nyamilandu said the trio was hired in an interim basis because it was in the middle of the current financial year.
