Nomads, Silver officials deny eyeing Sulom positions
Be Forward Wanderers general secretary (GS) Mike Butao and his Silver Strikers counterpart Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda have denied assertions by Super League of Malawi (Sulom) general secretary Williams Banda that they are eyeing positions in the flagship league governing body.
The development comes after Butao said they were lobbying other Super League teams to form a committee to advance their concerns because Sulom no longer represents their interests, citing the handling of Beta TV broadcasting rights and Sulom’s failure to push for the review of gate-revenue sharing as proposed by the clubs.
Said Butao: “We are not interested in Sulom positions. I, for one, have always made that clear. I can only serve in subcommittees, but I have no interest in any position outside Wanderers.”
Reacting to the Sulom GS claims that club officials including him [Butao] are in the TV marketing rights committee and were better placed to operationalise the committee, Butao said: “Mr Sydney Chikoti [Azam Tigers FC chairperson] heads the TV rights committee, which by the way, has never met even once.
“ And I was not even involved or invited to the signing of the contract. These are the very things we are pointing out. Some of these subcommittees are just put there as smokescreens meant to silence affiliates. If S-ulom learnt to act on issues we raise, we wouldn’t be making noise at all.
“When we speak Sulom should learn to listen, look at the substance of the complaints and act or communicate back. Our mandate as club administrators is to protect our clubs and we elected Sulom to help us do that or, at least, to make our work easier.”
On his part, Chakaka Nyirenda said: “That [we are eyeing Sulom positions] is a hallucinatory statement. We are not eying any position in Sulom. We believe it is within our rights to form the committee that would foster and promote our interests. Most teams are in support because Sulom fails to uphold our interests.”
Butao said a preliminary meeting to suggest the formation of the committee was already held with his Silver counterpart and Nyasa Big Bullets co-opted executive committee member Fleetwood Haiya. n
