Super League registers significant decline in violence

It seems the beast of violence and hooliganism at football venues is about to die; tear gassing, missile throwing, vandalism and bad-mouthing hardly found space in the just-concluded TNM Super League season.
Nation on Sunday has established that the 2014 season witnessed only two cases of hooliganism and violence compared to last season’s 15.
The first incident occurred during a match between Big Bullets and Epac United at Silver Stadium in Lilongwe in June, when fans protested alleged biased officiation. Silver Strikers forward Tony Chitsulo was injured in the fracas that ensued.
The other violent scene happened in October during an encounter between Mighty Wanderers and Blantyre United at Balaka Stadium. Nomads fan, Patrick Mkwezalamba, physically assaulted referee Ishmail Chizinga for alleged poor officiation.
The 34-year-old Mkwezalamba was subsequently prosecuted, convicted and slapped with a K25 000 fine or two months imprisonment in default. He paid the fine.
However, in 2013 season, violence was so rampant that in one incident a Wanderers fan, Lemiyasi Josita, died.  That was during the game between Silver Strikers and Mighty Wanderers at Balaka Stadium on December 28.
As one of the punishments, Super League of Malawi (Sulom) docked six and nine points from Wanderers and Silver respectively as the start of the 2014 season.
The 2012 season recorded eight violent incidents.
Sulom president Innocent Bottoman has attributed the sharp decrease to harsher punishments meted to perpetrators, thorough prosecution of suspects and the overall good behaviour of fans.
Bottoman thanked TNM for introducing various initiatives such as Shasha mascot and training workshops for referees, security personnel and clubs aimed at curbing the beastly acts.
He further appreciated the role the media has played in ensuring that there were few negative stories about football in the newspapers, radios, online and television.
“This has been a wonderful season because we were strict with the rules of the game. We combined Fifa, CAF and FAM statutes on violence and hooliganism to come up with stronger measures of dealing with the malaise.
“We also need to thank TNM for organising training workshops and the fans for maintaining discipline. Journalists have as well played a big role; we have rarely seen negative reporting, which could have fuelled more violence,” said Bottoman.
Bullets supporters’ committee chairperson Stone Mwamadi attributed the development to improved officiation, thanks to TNM’s provision of hi-tech communication gadgets to referees.
He said a good number of games ended without controversies because referees avoided the little mistakes that fuel anger among fans in the terraces.
Kondi Msungama, Big Bullets chairperson, concurred with Bottoman that strict adherence to the rules of the game has worked wonders this season.
“Anywhere in the world, peace thrives when rules are adhered to and this is what happened in the just-ended season,” said Msungama.
However, Wanderers general secretary Mike Butao and his Silver Strikers counterpart Mike Tembo feel there are still some gray areas that need clearing to ensure that next season becomes even more exciting and free of violence.
“Sometimes Sulom tends to be inconsistent in meting out punishments to offending teams and this breeds violence. We noted in the just-ended season that some teams were treated with kid gloves. If such disparities are not looked into, violence will return next season,” Tembo said.
But Bottoman said: “We have learnt a lot on how to govern the league. Next season will be even better. Perpetrators of violence will be harshly punished and soccer officials that deliberately bend the rules will be expelled.”
Carlsberg  Malawi Limited senior brands manager (alcoholics) Twikale Chirwa, whose company pulled out sponsorship for Bullets and Wanderers last year after cases of violence escalated, hailed teams for being disciplined this season.
Chirwa, however, said their interest for team sponsorship is no longer alive as they have taken a holistic approach in bankrolling grass roots, top-flight and the national team.
“It was two years ago when we emphasised that discipline, performance and fairplay would be benchmarks for team sponsorship, but things did not go the direction we wanted. This is when we turned up with sponsorship for the Flames. We already have the Carlsberg Cup and the Copa Coca-Cola Schools contest in place.
“In spite of that, I urge teams to keep up the discipline because that will attract more support from the corporate world,” he said. n