Fifa to relaunch Super League programme

Fifa has pledged to relaunch the programme aimed at revolutionising the country’s top flight football league into a professional entity.

The programme collapsed following a sour relationship between the former Super League of Malawi (Sulom) leadership and the country’s football governing body FAM.

However, Fifa’s technical officer for southern Africa Ashford Mamelodi on Saturday said the world football governing body is prepared to relaunch the initiative by following up on the Lilongwe Declaration.

“Since the club management workshop  held in Lilongwe in 2009 that was  aimed at professionalising the Super League, there has been no progress at all.

“The blueprint was done, but unfortunately nothing has happened because the previous Super League leadership stepped down and things somehow came to a halt.

“However, we have told FAM that if there is a commitment from the league, we are ready to relaunch the programme,” said Mamelodi from Botswana’s capital Gaborone on Saturday.

He also said Fifa is ready to fund the programme once FAM and Sulom are ready.

The programme collapsed following the resignation of Sulom leadership that was led by Henry Chibowa after revelations of alleged financial mismanagement.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu on Sunday confirmed that the association got the green light from Fifa to engage Sulom.

“There is a lot of unfinished business and our plans are to engage Sulom on the issue because Fifa is prepared to fund the project which is a welcome development.

“Now that there is a sound working relationship between FAM and Sulom, we are determined to relaunch the project,” said Nyamilandu.

Sulom president Innocent Bottomani expressed delight with the news.

“The news comes as a relief because Fifa would have chosen not to relaunch the programme. We are grateful to Fifa for giving us a second chance and we’ll grab it with both hands.

“It is a welcome development because it is high time we revolutionised our football by giving it a professional touch and we’ll wait to hear from FAM,” said Bottomani.

Among other issues, the Lilongwe workshop agreed to develop and introduce a club licensing system, reduce the number of clubs to 12 from 15 by 2012 league season.

It also agreed to review the statutes of clubs to provide for a minimum term of four years for elected executive officers. It further agreed to review the statutes of FAM to provide for full general assembly membership for initially three Super League clubs (on rotational basis) and a vice-presidency position occupied by the president of Sulom in the executive board of FAM.

It also agreed to limit the participation of institutional teams to one [per each institution].