National Sports

Regions want structures overhauled

Regional football associations’ heads have proposed an overhaul of structures at Football Association of Malawi (FAM) so as to give them more responsibilities in the running of the game.

Northern Region Football Association (NRFA) chairperson Lameck Zetu-Khonje, his Southern and Central region counterparts Raphael Humba and Auston Ajawa, respectively, said this following a meeting they had with the Agadir Regional Football Association on Monday.

Malawian officials pose with their Agadir counterparts after the meeting

Also in attendance was the National Youth Football Association (NYFA) chairperson Chimango Munthali.

Said Khonje: “There are several issues that we learnt from our counterparts on how they run their football, but crucial was that the Royal Moroccan Football Federation [RMFF] is not directly involved in running key areas such as women, youth, beach soccer and referees committees as is the case in Malawi.

“They are just there as an overseer and that task is left in the hands of its 11 regional bodies and they have advanced tremendously because they have decentralised their operations.”

He also said when the RMFF calls for a general assembly, the regional bodies are represented by their respective heads.

Khonje said they also learnt that each region gets $80 000 (about K57. 5 million) annually for their operations.

“On top of that, the regional associations also generate funding from fund-raising activities.

“We know that it [the proposal] will be unpopular, but we need to make such radical decisions in order to reorganise our football,” he said.

And when asked if FAM has the financial capacity to fund regional association, Humba chipped in: “They can use the annual subvention they get from Fifa and apart from using it to administer the game, we can get part of it as capital for fundraising drives.”

Humba also said aside from the agreement that the RMFF has with FAM, they have asked their counterparts in Agadir to come up with an agreement with the three local regional bodies.

“In principle, they have accepted, but they have asked us to write a thorough proposal.

“It is possible that we can have a corroborative agreement and if it materialises, we will be the first regional associations from Africa to go into partnership with the Agadir regional FA as their other partners are from Europe,” he said.

Humba also said the meeting touched on the issue of club licensing. They thanked FAM for including them on the trip, describing it as an eye-opener.

Efforts to get comment from Agadiar regional FA proved futile yesterday, but director of football at the Moroccan FA, Hadji Mouad, confirmed that they delegate most of the activities to the regional bodies.

“We are mainly there to implement policies and oversee activities, but we have not been briefed on the outcome of the meeting,” he said.

FAM vice-president James Mwenda yesterday confirmed being briefed about the meeting: “From what they said, they appear to have learnt from their counterparts, but then we will wait for their proposal and table it at an executive committee and see which areas can work and then take it up from there.”

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