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Silver U-turn on coaching panel decision

Barely days after dismissing head coach Dan Kabwe and his assistants for allegedly failing to meet targets, Silver Strikers FC board has rescidended its decision  following pressure from the Lilongwe-based club’s players.                    

The Reserve Bank of Malawi sponsored club’s board of trustees chairperson Victor Madhlopa confirmed the U-turn on Tuesday.

Still in charge of Silver: Kabwe (C)

The Central Bankers on Saturday announced the dismissal of the technical bench comprising Zambian Kabwe and his two Malawian assistants McDonald Yobe and McDonald Mtetemera, citing failure to meet their targets.

The firing came a day after Silver suffered a 2-1 defeat to Nyasa Big Bullets top-of-the-table clash at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.

But on Tuesday , Madhlopa said at its board meeting on Monday, the club has decided that Kabwe should remain the head coach with Yobe as his assistant.

He said Mtetemela is on suspension pending investigations in relation to his conduct in the technical panel.

Said Madhlopa: “Days after we announced the decision to terminate the contracts of our technical panel, our players were granted an audience with directors of the board, where they expressed their support for the head coach and requested that we reverse the decision.

“The board, at its emergency meeting last night [Monday], unanimously voted to nullify the termination and requested the head coach to resume work today [ on Tuesday ], to which he gladly accepted.”

On Mtetemera he said “that is an internal matter, which is unrelated, but being handled by our legal department”.

However, he explained that there could be no regrets for the club’s earlier decision because “football is a result-based career such that, if no wins are being registered when all resources are made available to the club, surely, hard decisions have to be made”.

Kabwe, who signed a two-year contract with Silver in April last year, declined to comment, saying he was not served with an official dismissal letter.

Mtetemera and Yobe were not available for comment on Tuesday.

One of Silver players, speaking on conditions of anonymity said, on Tuesday admitted appealing to the club’s board to reverse the decision to dismis the technical panel.

“Of course I was not one of the players that met the directors of the board. But we were united on asking the club to let Kabwe continue as head coach,” he said.

“We reasoned with the board that firing the panel will destabilise the team ahead of our assignments in CAF Confederations Cup and the FDH Bank Cup quarter-finals and that it would be better to make such a bold decision at the end of the season. We are happy that the board accepted our request.”

The Central Bankers are second on the 16-team Super League log-table with 46 points from 23 games, two points behind leaders Big Bullets, who have a game in hand.

Silver, who last won the league title in 2013, have registered 14 wins, four draws and five losses in the top-flight league.

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