Mwase: I have not heard anything
Flames coach Meck Mwase says he feels insecure working without a contract five months after Football Association of Malawi (FAM) offered him a one-year deal.
FAM hired Mwase as Malawi national football team coach on July 1 following an agreement with government that he would be on its payroll.
Responding to a question on the progress of his contract yesterday, the Flames mentor said: “I have not heard anything up to now and working without a contract makes me edgy as I am not sure if there is anything binding.”
Asked how he is making ends meet, the coach drew a long breath and said: “I get an upkeep allowance from FAM.”
Mwase’s fears come two years after Gerald Phiri and Deklerk Msakakuona found themselves in a similar predicament when they were also offered one-year contracts as Flames coach and assistant coach, respectively, but their tenure expired before government offered them contracts.
The development led to Phiri seeking legal redress.
FAM president Walter Nyamilandu yesterday said they are equally concerned with the delay.
“The Ministry [of Youth, Sports and Culture] officials are better placed,” he said.
The ministry’s director of sports Jameson Ndalama yesterday said he needed time to follow up with the Derpartment of Human Resource Management and Development on the progress.
He, however, dismissed the probability of Mwase finding himself in the same predicament as Phiri and Msakakuona.
Ndalama said: “There were some technicalities regarding the issue of Phiri and Msakakuona. One of them was that Msakakuona was then already working for government [under the Malawi Police Service].
“So, he could not be offered another job in government.”
Upon Mwase’s appointment, Nyamilandu said the executive committee offered him the job following the Flames’ satisfactory performance at last year’s Cosafa Cup tournament in South Africa.
The FAM president also said a meeting the association had with the ministry and Malawi National Council of Sports prior to Mwase’s appointment resolved that government should recruit three coaches for the senior, Under-20 and Under-17 national teams on a full-time basis.
“During this period, Meck will have to enter into contract negotiations with Malawi Government and complete necessary recruitment formalities and the contract agreement will be for one year subject to renewal upon expiry,” he said.
On whether they had set up targets for him, Nyamilandu then said: “We will be coming up with KPIs [key performance indicators] with government as part of the contract agreement.”
