Airtel Malawi Limited says the Airtel Top 8 Cup competition will return next year despite experiencing fan violence that erupted during the final between Blue Eagles and Nyasa Big Bullets.
The remarks were made by the company’s Chief Executive Officer Charles Kamoto after prize presentation to best performers during the 2017 tournament.
According to Kamoto, the company was not happy with what happened during the cup final but his company will not pull out of the competition as one way of achieving its role in developing the game.
“We were gutted with the fan violence during the final but if you can see, the competition was a success up until the dying minutes of the final where supporters were not happy with the penalty decision.
“As such, we won’t pull out but we have to warn football fans to refrain from resorting to violence as this discourages the corporate world from investing in the game,” he said.
On his part, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) President Walter Nyamilandu hailed Airtel for not pulling out of the competition in the aftermath of the violence but he was quick to refute reports that his association is shielding Nyasa Big Bullets.
“We are very grateful to Airtel Malawi for deciding to stay despite the fan violence. However, we should refute reports that we are shielding Nyasa Big Bullets as the verdict will be released to the public very soon,” he explained.
Bullets supporters went on rampage following Misheck Juwa’s decision to award Blue Eagles a last minute penalty which saw them ending their five year trophy drought.
Don’t bring politics in football, we are tired of this kind of nonsense in Malawian futbol, this is the reason why we are not doing well in all competitions across the country