Concerned football lovers in the Northern Region have faulted Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and Super League of Malawi (Sulom) over delay in reopening of Mzuzu Stadium.
In August, FAM decided to ban Mzuzu Stadium alongside Lilongwe’s Civo Stadium over poor state of the pitch, poor players’ tunnel, missing technical benches, poor condition of perimeter fence, poor dressing rooms, no public address system and dilapidated scoreboard. This followed an inspection by the FAM Club Licensing body.
Speaking during a press briefing on Wednesday in Mzuzu, the concerned grouping’s chairperson Davie Chipeta said FAM and its technical team are playing dirty football politics and has since threatened to mobilize massive demonstration on 17 October.
“FAM told us in black and white that we should mobilize K350,000 or K400,000 for them to send someone all the way from Blantyre to inspect the situation while they already have technical personnel here in Mzuzu.
“What they are asking for is not called for because it is their duty to uplift football in all regions and they have failed so we are calling for them to step down,” he said.
Davie continued to say that the stadium has gone through major rehabilitions on the pitch, fence, toilets and the VIP.
“We are not small, we are about 20 thousand soccer fans who would love to see this stadium opened again and I repeat if Bullets’ match against Ekwendeni Hammers is not going to be played in Mzuzu then it will not happen in Rumphi as well.” he lamented.
Meanwhile, FAM has said the re-opening of the Mzuzu Stadium awaits an inspection to be scheduled by the Mzuzu City Council.
The Association’s Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka said they notified Mzuzu City Council, the owners of the Mzuzu Stadium, on the areas that were supposed to be worked on and now waits for the Council to schedule another inspection to determine if the shortfalls have been addressed so that the facility can be re-opened.
FAM closed the stadium alongside Civo Stadium on 16th August 2023 after the FAM Club Licensing first instance body instituted inspections conducted on 27 July and 28th July respectively highlighted several shortfalls on the two facilities.
