The delay to process Flames coach Young Chimodzi and his deputy Jack Chamangwana’s contracts renewal has led to the two tacticians not getting their wages for four months.
The Football Association of Malawi (FAM) made a recommendation to government to renew their contracts following the expiry of the initial deals in July this year.
Principal secretary in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Justin Saidi on Friday blamed the delay of the process on FAM, saying it took them time to make the recommendation.
“The assessment is done by FAM, we only carry out the secondment as employers. The communication to effect contract renewals got us late because FAM said their executive committee was still assessing the coaches’ performance.
“So, we as government are not to blame for the situation in which the coaches find themselves in,” said Saidi.
He was responding to a question whether the delay to renew the contracts was because of government bureaucracy.
Earlier on the same day, FAM chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda told MBC Radio 2 that the contracts for the two were now ready and that they would be putting pen to paper anytime soon.
Asked how the coaches were surviving, Nyirenda said: “We have been paying them for the past four or five months with the hope of recovering the money when their contracts are up and running.”
However, Chimodzi said the money they were getting from FAM was not enough to meet their daily needs.
“It’s only that we didn’t want to make an issue out of it, but it really has been tough going.
“But then we do not have any control of the process. So, I am afraid all we have to do is to wait until it is finalised,” said Chimodzi.
FAM executive committee recommended a one-year extension of the two coaches’ contracts and they are supposed to serve until July next year.
Chimodzi and Chamangwana were roped back into the Flames coaching panel in January this year following the expiry of expatriate ‘volunteer’ Tom Saintfiet’s short-term contract.
Their appointments came barely a year after they were fired from the Kinnah Phiri-led coaching panel due to what FAM described as poor performance and government redeployed them to the Malawi National Council of Sports as regional football development officers.
In presiding over their unveiling ceremony on January 31 this year, FAM president Walter Nyamilandu set 2015 Africa Cup of Nations’ qualification as a target, the duo failed to meet the target at the last hurdle and FAM has not come out in the open to determine their future.
