Sunday shot

To Walter the man

I never had the chance to pass my condolences to him. I never had the chance to call him. I never had the chance to meet Walter Nyamilandu.

 Therefore, I hope this small piece would do to the man who, with his limitations, tries to bring sanity to the wayward Malawi football.

I do not even know whether I had the courage to meet the grief-stricken Nyamilandu after that black Saturday morning incident that cost the life of his fiancee Maria Inglis and her aunt somewhere around Phalula while in transit to Lilongwe.

That I was unable to call was all due to the heavy emotion of how to say it.

Speaking is about substance. I just did not know how to do it. Where to start from after that personal tragedy for the man who serves FAM with all energy and passion.

The Nation on Sunday back page blood-stained picture of injured Walter and family on arrival at Mwaiwathu Hospital captured it all.

This was the day every football conversation ended in one thing: the Walter accident. The Blantyre derby that was transferred to Lilongwe all seemed trivia.

Wait a minute. How does a whole column drag a personal tragedy of a football administrator into football? Well, family makes us all and what we achieve.

It is futile trying to separate Walter the football administrator from Walter the family man.

And talking football strictly, after all is said about Walter, I believe only time shall judge him fairly after leaving office. One day. Not that he is the best FAM president. But he is not the worst either.

Some of the flak he gets, I think, come from noise makers with neither an idea of what it takes to run football nor the expertise.

I just feel there are too many people with the business management and marketing competence to run football better but, like is the case with most Malawians, they never are willing to be part of the solution.

They simply do not avail themselves to the game. 

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