Player licensing scares leagues

FAM says it wants to roll out the global player registration and competition management system in all the country’s leagues from next season.

However, some local leagues have not welcomed the proposal, arguing it would cause confusion if implemented.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) believes the Fifa-sanctioned player tracking system will help to deal with issues such as player transfer controversies and age-cheating.

However, FAM affiliates such as Super League of Malawi (Sulom) and Southern Region Football League (SRFL) fear the system will deny them a chance to make some money through player registration fees.

Fifa introduced the system few years ago so that the world football governing body and national football officials can easily inspect player transfer deals anywhere in the world with a simple login password. Fifa already provided FAM with the necessary equipment for processing the licences.

Through the computerised system, FAM will be permanently recording player details, including date of birth, previous and current club, international caps and the team he is contracted to using special software provided by Fifa before creating an identity card similar to a visa electronic card.

Sulom general secretary (GS) Williams Banda and SRFL chairperson Trouble Kalua believe FAM’s plans to be the sole registration body of players in the new system would be a threat to the leagues as they rely on player registration fees for their operations, especially administration.

Banda argued that FAM should leave the responsibility of rolling out the initiative in the hands of their affiliates, who are involved directly with the running of the leagues.

“If FAM is really serious about this issue, then, they should leave the initiative in the hands of the leagues to avoid complications. The system will not work unless it is decentralised,” Banda said.

Commenting on the issue, Kalua said his league does not have any problem with FAM harmonising the registration system online.

He, however, suggested that FAM should set up a special office which would be easily accessible to Sulom and all the other leagues.

“This is a welcome development, but FAM needs to clarify on the procedure first. We do not want a scenario where FAM would be monopolising the registration process and taking away our duty to run the leagues,” Kalua said.

While requesting FAM to make the registration process affordable to clubs, Big Bullets FC chairperson Malinda Chinyama thinks the plan would be suitable for junior structures such as the Under-14 and Under-17 leagues so that player development can be easily monitored from the grass roots.

He said it would be a waste of resources to register old players through the new system that will see FAM capturing every single detail of players’ strengths and weaknesses.

“This is a very good development. But I believe it could make more sense if the system is rolled out in youth leagues so that FAM can ably create a database of future Flames stars. Of what use would it be to register a 32-year-old player through this electronic system?” Chinyama said.

Nevertheless, FAM commercial manager Casper Jangale said they will soon organise workshops to raise awareness on the importance of the online system before it is put into practice.

He said although they have briefed all stakeholders on the proposal, they will sell the idea to their affiliates gradually because “we know there are a lot of complexities involved. We do not want to force it on the leagues because we need to be partners.

“We plan to apply this electronic system on all the leagues at the beginning of our next football season in 2014. We are confident that after some workshops before next football calendar, all stakeholders will duly understand and adopt this idea.”

Epac United chairperson Dini Josaya Banda, whose side has been involved in player transfer wrangles with Army teams, welcomed the development, saying it will bring sanity to local football.

Josaya Banda, who is also chairperson for Central Region Football League (CRFL), said with the system in place, all teams will have a good number of quality players that would make domestic football entertaining once again.

“Nowadays, football is no longer an exciting sport to watch on the domestic scene as it used to be because some teams deliberately flout transfer procedures to have all the good players in their fold,” he said.

“This tendency dilutes competitiveness and excitement that football brings to spectators because it results in making games one-sided affairs,” he said.