TNM awards teams, players
Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Francis Kasaila has said the TNM Super League deserves a better sponsorship package than the current K95 million backing per season “considering the competing clubs’ big expenditure”.
The Minister made the observation during the top-flight league’s awards gala night for the 2017 season on Friday at Sunbird Mount Soche in Blantyre, where eventual champions Be Forward Wanderers received K15 million while their age-old rivals Nyasa Big Bullets, third-placed Silver Strikers and fourth-K7 million, K4 million and K3.5 million, respectively.positioned Civil Sporting Club got.
However, TNM plc acting chief executive officer Eric Valentine said they would not be able enhance the package next season because their 2018 budget has already been drawn.
Kasaila said: “We need better sponsorship. Clubs spend a lot and they need to be given a good value to recover their expenditure at the end of the season. If there is more sponsorship money, there will be more competition and more competition will translate into quality football both at domestic and international levels.”
Super League of Malawi (Sulom) president Innocent Bottomani agreed with Kasaila on the need to improve the annual package and said they hope the sponsors will revise the sponsorship.
“As league administrators, I can say we had a wonderful season as we saw some teams that were not given a chance for survival coming up with surprising performances and finishing on better positions. They were unpredictable and this made the competition entertaining,” he said.
“It is, therefore, our hope that TNM will revise sponsorship so that the league can even be more exciting.”
Wanderers team manager Steve Madeira commended the minister and the Sulom boss for the request, saying it is expensive to run the clubs.
In spite of that, Valentine had this to say: “We will consider the request to increase sponsorship. But as for the forthcoming season, that will not be possible because our 2018 budget has already been approved.”
He said as it stands, the mobile network service providers will continue bankrolling the top-flight league with the current terms and conditions up to 2020, when they will make themselves available again for another period of football sponsorship.
According to Valentine, TNM has no regrets for investing in football in the last 11 years, saying each passing year has seen the league entrenching itself as the biggest and most followed-after tournament on the land.
This statement was, probably, in relation to TNM’s decision to after being disappointed by an accusation by Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) for barring other players, with similar products and services as TNM, from supporting the league. TNM later reconsidered their decision following government intervention.withdraw sponsorship in 2017
TNM has for the past four seasons increased the league sponsorship twice. They upped the stakes from K50 million to K65 million in 2014, before enhancing it to the current K95 million in 2015.
Nomads’ Yasin Osman-led technical panel was named the best in the 2017 season. Their players Alfred Manyozo Jnr and Joseph Kamwendo also won the best midfielder and best player accolades, respectively.
Emmanuel Zoya for Bullets emerged the best defender whereas Brighton Munthali of Silver Strikers and Dwangwa United’s Jack Chiona were named best goalkeeper and most improved player, in that order. Former Silver striker Matthews Sibale won the Golden Boot.
Civil Sporting was named the most improved team and a side with the most disciplined supporters while Azam Tigers won the fairplay team award. The best team management accolade went to Dwangwa whereas Ishmael Chizinga was named the best referee.
