Malawi’s sports governing body, the Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS), has expressed disappointment over claims by the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) that the association is suffering as it is getting inadequate funds from government.
The development follows information carried in the Nation Newspaper of 31st March, 2022 where FAM president Walter Nyamilandu Manda was quoted complaining about inadequate funds the association gets from the Malawi government.
In the article, Nyamilandu said Malawi will only participate in 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), 2023 Africa Nations Championship (Chan), Cosafa Cup, Cosafa Women’s Championship, Cosafa Beach Soccer tournaments and not youth competitions.
“There is no way this is manageable with our current level of funding and sponsorship towards the national teams.”
Reacting to the development through a press statement released on April 14, 2022 which has been signed by its public relations and communications officer Edgar Ntulumbwa, MNCS says it is shocked with the news.
Ntulumbwa pointed out that the picture portrayed by FAM president in the article is as if the association did not receive any funding from Government, yet FAM is the association which got the lion’s share in the previous financial year.
“MNCS has learnt this information with great shock considering that Government, through MNCS, fully supported FAM financially during their world cup and AFCON qualifications and AFCON finals in Cameroon to a tune of almost K1 Billion.
“MNCS is at pains to appreciate why FAM would claim not to have been assisted by Government yet they are the association which got the largest share in terms of funds allocation in the mentioned financial year,” reads part of the statement.
The council indicated that there was no reduction in the last financial year allocation to FAM and further explained that FAM got K240 million from the proposed K1.4 billion in the last financial year just because the budget covered few months.
“As the public will know, the last financial year had a budget that covered nine months instead of the usual twelve. In other words, if the subvention that was given to FAM is extrapolated to twelve months, it will be self-evidence that there was no reduction at all,” explained MNCS.
MNCS has then said that going forward, it will call upon all associations to demonstrate how they are complementing Government efforts since expecting Government to always fully fund associations as well as national team is unsustainable in the long run.
Meanwhile, MNCS has since said that it is eagerly waiting for FAM to reconcile on how they used the money they were allocated in the last financial year.
