National Sports

Former Super League players dominate SAJ tournament

Southern Region (SR) Socials are Sports Administrators and Journalists (SAJ) tournament champions after beating Central Region Socials 4-3 in a post-match penalty shootout at Mpira Stadium in Chiwembe, Blantyre on Saturday.

Northern Region Socials took the third slot after their 1-0 triumph over SR Socials 2 in the third-place play-offs.

Hijacked: SAJ games are meant for sports adminstrators and not former Super League players
Hijacked: SAJ games are meant for sports adminstrators and not
former Super League players

However, the tournament has attracted criticism after some teams featured former Super League players instead of sports administrators and journalists.

Some of the players in the Central Region Socials team were former Flames goalkeeper Bothwell Saka, former Big Bullets striker Andrew Chikhosi, former Civo United players Ulanda Kalua Charles Beni and Gerald Mhango, former Azam Tigers player Gilbert Manda and former Escom United striker Noel Mkandawire.

South Socials also featured former Flames players Peter Mponda, Heston Munthali, MacDonald Yobe, ChisomoKamlanje, Fundi Akidu, Grey Nyirenda and Elia Kananji.

Civo United acting general secretary Charles Mwenda said the social concept behind the formation of SAJ has been hijacked.

He said: “If people want to have a tournament of former Super League players they should create one instead of hijacking the concept of SAJ.  The social element is completely gone.”

Galaxy Radio sports journalist Dickson ChivwatiGondwe said: “This tournament was initially supposed to be involving teams comprising of journalists and sports administrators under the SAJ banner.  It was meant to be social football, but we were surprised to see former Super League players dominating.”

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