Patrick Mabedi is coming for FAM’s wallet. The Industrial Relations Court has already ruled his dismissal unlawful — now the only question is how much the Football Association of Malawi will have to pay.
Former Malawi Flames head coach Patrick Mabedi is demanding MK916.7 million in compensation from the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) after the Industrial Relations Court (IRC) in Blantyre ruled that he was unfairly and unlawfully dismissed — a decision that could prove enormously costly for the football body.
Mabedi is represented by lawyer David Kanyenda of Kanyenda Associates — the same lawyer who successfully won MK440 million for former Flames coach Meke Mwase against FAM in 2024.
In a witness statement on assessment of damages dated March 25, 2026, Mabedi is pursuing the massive sum following a ruling by IRC Deputy Chairperson Wyson Nkhata, who found FAM liable and directed Mabedi to pursue any withheld fringe benefits and related entitlements he could prove.
Mabedi was sacked in October 2024, just 11 months into a two-year contract he signed with FAM in October 2023 — a deal that came after he had already served five months as interim coach. FAM cited poor performance as grounds for his dismissal. Mabedi, through his lawyer David Kanyenda of Kanyenda Associates, argues the process was procedurally flawed: he was never formally charged and was never given a chance to defend himself before being shown the door.
He filed suit against FAM in November 2024 and the IRC has since ruled in his favour on liability. What remains is the damages hearing — and that is where things took a turn this week.
“Whilst our view is that judicial business must enjoy primacy for court officers, we reluctantly yielded to the adjournment request.” — David Kanyenda, Mabedi’s lawyer
The hearing scheduled for April 10 was adjourned to April 28 after FAM’s lawyer, Luciano Mickeus of Micklaw and Company, was unavailable — reportedly because he was attending a parastatal board meeting. Mickeus chairs the board of Sunbird Tourism plc. His firm’s representative Joseph Chiona confirmed the request, saying they expect a fair determination when the matter resumes.
Kanyenda’s remark was pointed: a board meeting, in his view, should not outrank a court date.
If Mabedi wins big, it would not be the first time Kanyenda has extracted a landmark payout from FAM over a coach’s dismissal. He represented former Flames coach Meke Mwase, who in 2024 was awarded MK440 million by the IRC after being unlawfully terminated, redeployed, and constructively dismissed. Mwase had originally claimed MK518 million.
In that case, IRC Deputy Chairperson Edna Bodole pegged Mwase’s compensation against the wage scales of former expatriate coaches — Romanian Mario Marinica and Belgian Ronny Van Geneugden — noting the stark pay disparity. At the time of his dismissal in April 2022, Mwase was earning around MK1.7 million a month, while his foreign counterparts were pulling in between $7,500 and $8,500 monthly.
Mabedi’s claim dwarfs even that. With MK916.7 million on the table, the April 28 hearing will be one of the most consequential FAM has ever faced — and a test of whether Malawi’s football body has learned anything about how it treats the coaches it hires and fires.
