Finance Minister, Goodall Gondwe, Thursday made it plain that it would be difficult for Capital Hill to increase funding to the sports sector due to the continued dismal performance of national teams such as the Flames.
Gondwe was responding to a question from a Member of Parliament (MP) who asked the government to increase funding to teams such as the Malawi netball Queens and the Flames.
“In as far as Sports Council is concerned, I would like to remind the House that in the last four years, we have almost tripled expenditure to the Sports Council and more is required. And when football is about to come, they want more money outside the budget.
“We would like to appeal to the sports people that the country cannot go on and on, increasing this amount particularly since we don’t seem to qualify for the World Cup. I hope they could give us some encouragement by winning some games,” Gondwe said.
Earlier, the MP noted that the Queens’ players get a meagre K1,000 as a daily training allowance package and that it was on the lower side.
“We ask if that allowance can be increased. You know that netball or football is a short-term career. I want to find out if this budget to the [Malawi] National Council of Sports has taken into consideration that the allowance package for our netball and football teams should be increased.
“Secondly, Malawi is to participate in Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) [qualifiers] but we have always wondered [sic] in terms of preparations. When you ask them, they always say there is a problem of funding. Therefore, our participation is just like a formality rather than having results…so I don’t know if the Ministry of Sports has taken this into consideration so that more funding should be put to Fam [Football Association of Malawi] or Sports Council so that our preparation should be about results,” he said.
In reaction, Fam President, Walter Nyamilandu, said they were grateful that under the regime of President Peter Mutharika, the Flames’ annual funding has increased from K75 million to K300 million.
“Having increased the funding, we have been able to bring on board junior national teams. I would like to assure you that we are on track; the future looks bright because of the youth national teams. But that K300 million is not enough. We need to invest in the game so that our under-17 and 20 national teams should continuously participate in international competitions,” Nyamilandu said.
He added that Fam has exhausted the K300 million funding for this year; hence, calls for qualification to the World Cup should be matched by investment.
The Flames have never come closer to qualifying for the World Cup finals and, since the country attained independence in 1964, the team has been to Africa Cup of Nations finals in 1984 and 2010.
The team last won the East and Central Africa Cup in 1998 and since that time it has been on a downward spiral, failing to reach the Cosafa Cup quarter-final since 2016.
In the last two consecutive years, the Flames have not won a Cosafa Cup match and have scored once in six games of the regional football showpiece.
Under Belgian Coach, Ronny van Geneugden, Malawi has won twice, drawn nine times and lost four times in all competitions. Nonetheless the team will still compete in qualifiers for next year’s Afcon to be played in Cameroon.
The Flames will compete in the qualifiers alongside Morocco—who have since exited the World Cup in Russia—, Cameroon and Comoros Islands. Malawi points at par with leaders Morocco.
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