…Peter Mponda fired..
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has announced it will not renew coach Ronny Van Geneugden’s contract.
The Belgian was hired on 6th April, 2017 after the firing of Ernest Mtawali but his two year stay with the senior team wasn’t enough to convince his bosses to renew his contract which expired on 31st March 2019.
The country’s soccer governing body had an Executive Committee meeting in Salima where a recommendation was made to let the Belgian tactician go.
According to a statement released by the FA on Saturday evening, the decision to have his contract not renewed was made by the Executive Committee following a recommendation from the Technical Committee.
“The Executive Committee examined the report of the Technical Committee which convened on Friday, 5th April to asses the performance of the coach during his tenure.”
“The Executive Committee resolved to adopt the recommendations of the Technical Committee not to renew the contract of the national coach based on poor results of the Malawi National Team.”
“The Executive Committee would like to thank Ronny Van Geneugden for the services rendered to Malawi football in the time of his employment with FAM and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors,” reads part of the statement.
The FA has now named under 23 coach Meke Mwase as an interim head coach until a permanent replacement is made but Peter Mponda, who was deputising RVG, has also been fired.
“In the interim, the Executive Committee has since appointed Meke Mwase who was coach of the Malawi U23 to take charge of the Malawi Senior National team until a permanent replacement is made.
Meke Mwase will be assisted by Lovemore Fazili with Bob Mpinganjira as a fitness trainer. Swadick Sanudi and James Sangala will continue as goalkeeper trainer and team manager respectively,” reads the presser.
The interim technical panel’s first assignment will be a crash against Eswatini in the 2020 CHAN qualifier in two weeks time.
Under his tenure, RVG won twice, lost nine games and drew eleven games.
His team finished bottom of group B in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations after registering only a single win, two draws and three defeats.
He will mostly be remembered for introducing young talent into the senior team, the notable ones being Precious Sambani, Gomezgani Chirwa, Felix Zulu, Peter Cholopi, Patrick Phiri and Levison Maganizo.
