Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has hailed Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) for introducing gate charges at netball games saying the development is a big step towards achieving the commercialization drive.
For the first time in Malawi, people were asked to pay K200 to watch the just ended GOtv Netball Championship launch where K119, 990 was realized in two days.
Though the amount might seem to be too low, FAM has hailed their counterparts saying it is not easy to break new grounds considering that people used to watch the games for free.
The FA’s Commercial Director Limbani Matola said: “This is very historical to the game of netball in Malawi. We would like to commend NAM administration for coming up with this bold decision. We are quite aware that a lot of people including the media have for a long time been critical of NAM for making the game of netball too cheap despite world class performance of our netball team.
“The Queens are number 6 in the world and 2 in Africa which is a strong evidence that our netball team is one of the best in the world. FAM is therefore advising NAM not to look back and these netball charges must be here to stay,” said Matola.
Meanwhile, NAM President Khungikire Matiya has said her association will not be intimidated by negative comments concerning the amount of money grossed during the netball launch.
Ooooh Netball lovers were watching games for free, No. Netball is a second big game after Football, people indeed are supposed to pay. NAM should push it up and make Netball durable. Doing these, it will compete with football up to K1000 at a gate. Our girls are superior. They play well than shameful Flames which failed even to score a goal in a whole competition.