South African veteran sports journalist, Thomas ‘TK’ Kwenaite, is an authority on the continent’s football with depth of experience spanning two decades and when he opens his mouth on SuperSport television Africa Soccer Show, Africa football family closes its mouth and opens its ears.
So, when the Africa sports journalism grandmaster gave his candid diagnosis of the ailing Malawi football during what was erroneously branded as an interface with the media in Blantyre on Sunday, there was so much debate with administrators blaming fans.
The local media was accused of doing little to expose the football ills and some blasted the press for derailing club football with bad press.
Well, TK said all the right things that it was unthinkable for fans to be allowed to manage gate collections and that clubs must shake off communal ownership. He was at pains to understand how, on earth, in the 21st century a whole football system allows to be at the mercy of fans.
I like the stage-acting that characterised the deliberations because Malawians are so good at pretending. The whole gathering, which in my opinion would have been more enriching if it were restricted as strictly an interface between the media and TK, had some hypocrites.
Maybe, Malawi media is capable of listening and learning from an inspiration such as TK, but not the hypocrites.
It is hypocrisy of the highest order for the participants to pretend that something new was being said at this gathering.
Many local reporters have, for decades, been threatened for exposing football ills, but no one really cares because some of the fraudsters and the thieves who ruin the game are the same people who still run football and complain.
No administrator should pretend that they do not benefit from gate fraud and fans’ power.
Is it is not the same administrators, who on recommendation of Ashford Mamelodi, authored the blue print christened the Lilongwe Declaration, yet sent the document to the trash basket?
Do we need TK or Mamelodi to come again to implement this?
