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Push comes to shove

 

Financial constraints have taken toll on Nchalo United and Dwangwa United who have expressed doubts over their continued participation in the TNM Super League.

With barely three days before the second round kicks off, the two teams claim they are yet to assemble their squads.

Said Nchalo chairperson Peter Chiipanthenga: “As of today, there is no team. The boys went home for the mid-season break and we have not called them back yet as our financial position has not improved. We have no money. We really wish to finish the league, but without money there is nothing we can do.”

Chiipanthenga: There is no team

His Dwangwa counterpart Arnold Zenizeni said at present, they owe their players about K20 million in upkeep and training allowances and game bonuses for this season alone and they have no alternative after exhausting the K30 million support they get from Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc.

“As I am talking now, some of our players have been chased from their houses due to outstanding rentals and we are unable to give them transport to come to our base to start training ahead of the next round,” he said.

“Of course, Illovo helps us with K30 million financial backing per season, but that is not enough for us to survive the operational costs. We need more support from other well-wishers. We have exhausted even the money from our personal pockets and the financial problems are still accumulating. We have a good squad but that is nothing without money.”

Meanwhile, Karonga United vice-general secretary Abraham Mwakhwawa said they were not certain about fulfilling their second round fixtures until early this week when businessperson-cum-politician Daniel Chitonya Mwanyongo came up with a K1 million rescue package.

He also explained that they owe their players salaries and bonuses for two months.

“Our budget for the season was K48 million depending on the support from well-wishers, but at present we have nothing. We could not have started training had it not been for the K1 million support from Mwanyongo. We may start playing our games in the second round but I doubt if we will complete all our fixtures,” Mwakhwawa said.

However, Super League of Malawi (Sulom) treasurer Tiya Somba-Banda yesterday said they are aware of the situation among some teams and positive developments are on course that, come September, the clubs should be in good shape.

“In the interim, we will continue working with the clubs to minimize the impact of their financial statuses,” he said.

The three teams started feeling the heat of financial struggles in the first round but they completed their fixtures after some well-wishers came to their rescue.

Nchalo in particular wrote Sulom and Football Association of Malawi (FAM) that they were unable to fulfil all their fixtures, but were spurred on by financial backing from their trustees Maxwell Kalamula and Sidik Mia.

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