‘One year is enough for Flames coaches’

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu has said the Flames technical panel comprising head coach Ernest Mtawali and his assistant Nsanzurwimo Ramadhan should be able to achieve success within the one year they have been given to be in charge.

Nyamilandu was responding to Weekend Nation’s question on whether a one-year contract is enough for the national team coaches to bring desirable results considering that the local football governing body normally offers at least two-year contracts to coaches.

He said although they have not set a target for the Flames mentors, it is obvious that their long-term stay as national team coaches depends on their achievements.

“We are not saying they must win every match that comes their way, but, at least, they should not stoop so low as to lose to sides that are ranked below the Flames. It will be understandable to lose by small margins to giant outfits. But, overall, defeats will not be desirable results,” he said.

The FAM boss said the contracts will be renewed based on what the coaches are going to achieve within the year.

According to Nyamilandu, they could not gamble to offer Mtawali and Ramadhan  normal two-year contracts after learning bitter lessons when they tried to terminate contracts of former Flames mentors Kinnah Phiri and Jack Chamangwana in 2013.

Then, there was almost a year remaining on their contracts when FAM decided to cut the ties following poor results. Nevertheless, it was legally unacceptable to do so and the only solution was to redeploy them as regional coaches so that they could continue receiving their packages.

“We learned the hard way with Phiri and Chamangwana’s deals because we lost a lot of money by continuing to pay them just to make sure we were in line with the contractual agreements, yet they were not active when they were redeployed as regional coaches,” he said.

“We have offered year-long contracts to the new coaches because we are running away from facing similar challenges in the future.”

On his part, Mtawali said although it is a challenge to deliver within a year, they will do their best to make the country proud.

“It is really a challenge to bring the desirable results within a year. But that will not be a big problem for us because we are capable.

“Moreover, we will not have so much work in formulating the squad because we are lucky that our predecessors Young Chimodzi and Chamangwana laid athefoundation for us,” Mtawali said.