NMC denies Big Bullets takeover

…gives Bullets K42m loan for signing-on-fee

Reports were circulating on social media that Nyasa Big Bullets sponsors Nyasa Manufacturing Company (NMC) were planning to take over the club by giving the club a condition that it will only release K42 million signing-on fee if all players sign new contracts with the company.

Well, NMC and new Bullets Chairman Noel Lipipa had a joint press briefing at Nyasa offices in Blantyre on Tuesday morning where the two parties completely quashed the rumors saying the K42 million given to the club is a loan which will be paid back in the next four years.

Lipipa, who succeeded Sam Chilunga some weeks ago, with confidence told the media that the former executive committee erred in the recruitment process where some players were paid for their signing-on fee in the absence of others.

“My predecessor was wrong in the recruiting process whereby some of the players were given their signing-on fee in the absence of other players. This was injustice. My committee is trying to fix this mess by giving every player his penny.”

“The K42 million package is a loan from the sponsors. We will pay them back by receiving K90 million from K100 million for the next four years. It’s not that we have sold the club for K42 million because as you can see, NMC will be taking K10 million from every K100 million per season,” he said.

In his remarks, NMC Chairman Konrad Buckle said his company had no intentions to take over the club but they would love to invest into the club when it goes commercial.

“We had a board meeting just after signing a deal with Bullets, the executive told us that they wanted NMC to buy the club but we told them that the decision needed to come from the board of trustees in writing but it never happened.

“What we want is to commercialize the club by allowing more investors to invest into the club because we can’t just invest without benefitting. We need to have some stake in the club.”

“Investing has nothing to do with taking over the club. What we need is to see the club exceed by buying shares but as a company, we had no intentions to buy the team,” he said.

During the briefing, Lipipa revelealed that Bullets will be looking for five investors to take the club forward. He also disclosed that his committee intends to construct a stadium for the team.