Be Forward Wanderers will face Mafco and not Silver Strikers in Sunday’s Southern Region Football Association (SRFA) fundraising match as the bankers have pulled out.
The match has also been moved from Mangochi to Balaka Stadium while the date remains unchanged.
Confirming the development, SRFA Chairman Raphael Humba said the change of Wanderers’ opponent has come due to reasons beyond their control.
“It’s not by design, but we have been forced into this change. But as for the venue it’s our making to give Balaka fans some pre-season treat. Mangochi has already had two good matches with Wanderers and Nyasa Big Bullets travelling to play Mangochi Select, and this Saturday Silver will meet Civil Sporting at the same venue, while Balaka has not had any big game since the end of the 2017 season,” said Humba
On their initial target of K8 million, Humba added that it remains in their sights despite the changes.
“Wanderers have a big fan based in Balaka and surrounding areas because that was their home ground last season, so we believe soccer fans will come out in numbers to patronise the match and help us hit our target,” he said.
While Humba was coy on the real reasons behind the change of teams, Silver general secretary Thabo Nyirenda opened up to Malawi24.
“Initially we had an agreement with Mangochi Secondary School Alumni Committee to play Civil in a fundraising match in Mangochi on Saturday, then SRFA approached us for the Sunday game against Wanderers and we had a deal. This did not go down well with the Alumni Committee who complained that SRFA had hijacked their concept. There was bad blood between the two parties, so we decided to pull out for sanity’s sake,” explained Nyirenda.
Last month, SRFA hosted Bullets and Mangochi Select while the Alumni courted Wanderers and the Select side in January.
SRFA is fundraising to settle referees’ outstanding dues while the alumni are in search of money for a number of projects at their alma mater.
Very sorry to my team wander bcoz plying with silv iz lik test to us