Flames need statistician, says Antoine

Flames need a statistician if domestic football is to have a realistic measure of progress, researcher Mario Antoine has said.

The United Kingdom-based Malawian said the absence of official records on Malawi football has left the local game’s progress or retrogression to be a matter of guesswork.

Antoine, who claims to have collected 90 percent of domestic football statistics and records, offered to help Football Association of Malawi (FAM) in putting in place proper records for the Flames if approached.

FAM commercial manager Casper Jangale said he had been collecting the lost pieces of Malawi football history, hoping that the association can have all the records.

He said so far, FAM has full records of national team coaches, but wants to extend to national team goals and appearances.

“They are very important. We need to preserve our football history. When you want to honour an individual, it becomes simple and you use records as back-up.

“It helps in match analyses and helps give the new generation of players direction of where the game is coming from and where it is heading to,” he said.

“I remember when government and the Sports Council were assessing Kinnah Phiri, I was asked to provide the statistics and I was able to do that instantly. Former national coach Ted Powell used to keep records and it was easy for me to compile, especially from 1977.”