In a country where the government and its people are stubborn and opposed to light and progress, I am not surprised that Football Association of Malawi (Fam) even decided to withdraw from all the continental competitions; African Nations Championship (Chan) and Africa Cup of Nations. Of course, Fam u-turned.
For a week, I have been in South Africa, operating from Limpompo Province in the Municipality of Greater Giyani where communication was a nightmare.
It, therefore, came as a shock to learn of this unbelievable development from the online sources when I came to Johannesburg on Wednesday.
When I heard this terrible news, my first reaction was that the decision, it is ridiculous, unheard of and counterproductive development, a decision which is not supposed to be made by people with sound minds.
I do not even remember when this madness of withdrawing from international football competition, ever happened in Malawi football for the past 45 years I have been around on earth.
It is sad that when all the countries are busy investing in football, the game Brazilian legend Pele christened beautiful, Malawi has decided to pull out of continental competitions.
The best way could have been featuring youngsters in these competitions so that they should be developing together with the game.
Fam said it would instead, with funding from Fifa and Caf, intensify and dedicate all its efforts and resources towards football development programmes with emphasis on coaching, grassroots and youth football. Fam said it would, therefore, recruit a highly qualified and experienced Director of Football to lead these development programmes.
To me all these were illusions by people who have outlived their usefulness in as far as football development is concerned.
Even if Fam embarks on these programmes, they will not yield any positive results because there is no sound football infrastructure and equipment.
All we have are these rugged terrains being used as football pitches.
Fam had rushed in its decision to withdraw from these competitions on the premise that the government has refused to recruit a foreign coach.
I have always argued that Fam needed to maintain the coaching panel headed by Nsanzurwimo Ramadhan to help build the team by participating in Chan and regional tournaments.
Instead, Fam was adamant and insisted on recruiting an expatriate coach when the writing was on the wall that it was impossible because this government is stone broke.
Both the government and Fam need to be told in no uncertain terms that we need our national team to continue playing in these competitions as part of the rebuilding.
You do not rebuild a team by withdrawing from competitions. You are behaving like a Roman Fool who died by his own sword.
I just hope sanity will prevail because the repercussions of this unpopular decision will be detrimental to someone’s political career.
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