Mighty Wanderers are in a fresh players’ transfer controversy with Azam Tigers over unpaid transfer fees exceeding K5 million.
Tigers have since instructed the Super League of Malawi (Sulom) to stop the Nomads from featuring five players
The Nomads, who are also being accused by Silver Strikers of featuring Tony Chitsulo over the weekend before he was cleared, have to deal with Tigers whose general secretary Geoffrey Kachale wrote Sulom on May 4 2013.
Kachale accused the Nomads of failing to honour last season’s transfer fees balances for Mike Kaziputa (K750 000) and a K300 000 (about $714) balance for Mapopa Msukwa and Timothy Chitedze.
Last season, Wanderers reportedly paid K500 000 (about $1 190) as loan fee for Kaziputa before Tigers asked for the K750 000 (about $1 785) being the player’s full transfer fee.
In addition, Kachale said the Lali Lubani side has not honoured transfer fees of Kondwani Kumwenda and Kondwani Lufeyo who signed from Tigers this season at K1.5 million (about $3 571) and K2.8 million (about $6 700) respectively.
“They issued a cheque in excess of K5 million (about $11 904), then told us not to cash it. My worry is that this is not the first time they have done this. Sulom has to come in to solve the problem. It is not in our interest to punish the players.
“We cannot force Wanderers to pay, but as long as they do not, then they cannot use the players,” Kachale explained.
Wanderers general secretary David Kanyenda could not be reached for comment until we went to press.
Nomads chairperson George Chamangwana could not explain the team’s position over the five players when asked yesterday. He insisted that he did not know anything about Tigers’ claims.
But Sulom general secretary Williams Banda said Tigers and Wanderers need to answer some questions before the league can decide on the matter.
“We would want to know what were the agreed terms and why they are taking the route they are proposing. Did they give consent to Wanderers? And what is the problem, is it doable or not? Once these issues are resolved, we can then advise,” said Banda.
Tigers authorised the five players’ registration as Wanderers employees, which means unless there are some clauses attached, the Nomads could still technically use the footballers.
Sulom is supposed to have transfer documents for every player transaction, but Banda said: “They issued verbal instructions to our administration offer. Our plea is for parties to document.”
