Nomads suspicious of Sulumba’s suspension

Mighty Be Forward Wanderers have said they are suspicious about the coincidence of their hitman Muhamad Sulumba’s suspension and his trip to South Africa for trials at Jomo Cosmos FC.

Sulumba was shown a second yellow card against Silver Strikers last Sunday consequently ruling him out of Saturday’s derby against Big Bullets and paving the way for his trip to Johannesburg today.

Wanderers have since lodged a complaint to the Super League of Malawi (Sulom) surrounding the player’s suspension as well as the actual trials.

“We see a pattern in all this. Sulumba’s yellow card came from literally nowhere. He was shown the yellow card after an innocuous tackle on a Silver player, he even won the ball.

“Him [Sulumba] having to miss the Bullets game because of that card and the trip to South Africa which again comes due to the same yellow card, raises our suspicion, raise our suspicion. [We feel] all this is being orchestrated from somewhere, we are not kids,” Butao said in an interview yesterday.

Part of the letter sent to Sulom general secretary, reads: “ We are very disturbed by the issues surrounding Sulumba’s trials in South Africa. We hope Sulom can see what we are seeing and will institute the necessary investigation to ascertain the truth.”

The Nomads have also said even if Sulumba passes trials at Cosmos, they will not release him.

“We have brought Sulumba from oblivion to prominence and we expected Blantyre United to be appreciative of this reality and at least honour the arrangement we had in place. We brought in Sulumba to help us win honours, not to develop and help Blantyre United sell on. Having paid for the player’s services, we retain the right to keep him for the period we paid for.

“Secondly even if Sulumba passed his trials, we would not be ready to release him because the transfer window is closed now and we cannot bring in a replacement,” reads part of the letter.

Sulom treasurer Tiya Somba-Banda confirmed receipt of the Nomads complaint, saying: “They have [indeed] raised some issues relating to Sulumba’s trials, they are not happy with the timing and how the yellow card came about. So, We will sit down to see how we can handle it.” n