By Sopani Ng’ambi
Mzuzu Stadium Manager, Paul Machilika, says less than 30 percent of the estimated eight hundred million budget was raised for the renovation of the oldest northern region soccer cathedral, Mzuzu Stadium, ahead of this year’s TNM Super League.
Machilika made the revelation after being asked to disclose the total amount that has been used in rehabilitation of the stadium as the TNM Super League is set to commence on 12 March.
Machilika, however, said the actual amount used in rehabilitation of the stadium will be announced soon.
According to him, the budget was pegged at eight hundred million Malawi kwacha in order to rehabilitate many old structures at the stadium.
He said: “As you know the stadium is too old, many things need to be done to renovate it to its best. So we thought eight hundred million would be enough.”
Machilika, however, blamed other stakeholders for not showing interest in helping them during the fundraising.
“We approached many stakeholders including teams themselves to help us raise the funds, unfortunately we got little help. So our stadium makes very little money, hence the shortfall,” he said.
“The only highest amount we have collected since 2018, is K800, 000, otherwise as stadium owners we usually walk away with very little money each game. So it’s hard to do everything alone with the miniature we get,” he added.
On his part, Deputy Mayor of Mzuzu City, Gradwel Mwenitete asked for more time before commenting on the matter, saying he will have all the needed details after everything concerning the stadium renovation is completely done, probably this week.
He said currently, there is a contractor working on the stadium’s fence which was destroyed by heavy rains some weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has currently approved eight stadiums to be official venues for the 2022-23 season but Mzuzu stadium is not on the list.
The approved stadiums are: Balaka, Mulanje, Kamuzu, Mpira, Kasungu, Karonga and Silver stadiums.
Other stadiums including Mzuzu, are yet to get the nod, but could do so probably this week after the second round of inspection.
