Flames and the Malawi Queens will continue struggling unless sports authorities embrace long-term athlete development programme (Ltad) and use formally trained sports administrators.
Flames on–and-off trainer Augustine Banda said this in reaction to the Flames 2-0 loss to Algeria at Kamuzu Stadium on Saturday in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
“Like everything else in Malawi, we want a quick fix, but like everything else, quick fixes only bring tremendous frustration. Malawi pours so much money into sports with no real plan, but just a lot of hope. The status quo will continue to burn a hole in Malawi budget and will never serve Malawian interests fully,” explained Banda, who is also Sports Complex general manager.
He added: “Unfortunately, the truth for the Flames and the Queens, the solution in sports are from the bottom-up Ltad and not the top-down (patch work). So, no real surprises after today’s [Saturday] game and truthfully it is not the players or coaches fault. The problem is bigger than that.”
According to him, the Sports Council and the Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) have, in the last five years, funded sports administration academic courses offered by the International Olympic Committee and the University of Pretoria, but few officials from the mainstream sports attend them.
“Set up a performance technical panel that thinks six months ahead minimum; one that does not hope but plans meticulously for each sport code.
“Hundreds of millions have been wasted on sports that could not seriously and honestly have been directed to far better use by federations with guidance. Bring out the technicians that MNSC has been training over the years and put them to good use. Start there,” he said.
