Super League of Malawi (Sulom) is set to implement the much talked about Lilongwe Declaration signed by clubs in 2009, but doubts are on the contentious issue of the number of teams from an institution that should be allowed in the Super League.<\/p>\n
Back in 2009, The Lilongwe Declaration, following advice from Fifa development officer Ashford Mamelodi, proposed the restriction of teams from one institution in the top-flight league.<\/p>\n
Other countries adopted the recommendation and to date, the Super League is the only league in this part of Africa that allows more than one teams in the top-flight league.<\/p>\n
If adopted, the move would see the league runners changing the constitution to cut the number of teams from the same institution and this would largely affect the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) that has five teams in the league.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Super League of Malawi has said it is keen to have the Lilongwe Declaration implemented.<\/p>\n
The current executive committee targeted the implementation of the Lilongwe Declaration when it was voted into power in March.<\/p>\n
Sulom vice president Daud Suleman said ground work had already started.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are meeting this weekend in Lilongwe for executive committee meeting and a plan will be agreed there,\u201d Suleman said during the week.<\/p>\n
The VP disclosed that they had already started drafting a strategic plan that would be a roadmap to implementation of the Declaration as the league goes professional.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been progress. Draft strategic plan has been done, hence this weekend meeting is the key to unlocking and getting buy-in from the rest of the executive committee,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Without getting into details, Suleman, however, said there were issues in the Lilongwe Declaration that needed review.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are issues in the Declaration that need to be reviewed given the time difference between 2009 and 2015 plus the clubs licencing activities that have started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
General secretary, Williams Banda, the only executive member who was in Sulom back in 2009, said the principles in the Lilongwe Declaration were the same as those in the Fam\u2019s club licensing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe principles in club licencing and the Lilongwe Declaration are almost the same. The objective is professionalism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He, however, was of the view that there was need to define Malawi football based on needs assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a way to go, but, we need to develop a roadmap. Stakeholders need to make a commitment. We need to define our football in Malawi,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to consolidate and come up with one policy document . We need to have Malawi football policy that is applicable to our situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sulom\u2019s biggest challenge in restriction of institution teams, is the league\u2019s lack of sponsorship.<\/p>\n
Institutions like the MDF have the financial muscle to sponsor five teams while the corporate world looks on teams fold up due to lack of sponsorship.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, MDF spokesperson Lieutenant Paul Chiphwanya said he would have to consult their lawyers before commenting on the issue.<\/p>\n
But Former Football Association of Malawi general secretary, Charles Nyirenda, who facilitated the week-long workshop while he was in office in 2009, said implementation of the proposal would face challenges due to changes that have happened between 2009 and 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt present that is impractical. As a matter of fact, things have become more complicated now. Back then, we had only three army teams and inaction on that front has seen the figure of army teams rising to five with more in each region knocking on the door to join the fray,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe solution to this is transforming the game into a business whereby clubs will have owners who are risk takers. As things stand at the moment, the process of collapsing army clubs into one is going to be a long haul. The situation has been allowed to grow so huge, making it very difficult for everyone to solve the resultant puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n
He, however, was of the view that the Lilongwe Declaration was still a blue print that if religiously followed would transform Malawi football.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the spirit behind the Declaration was good and its relevance can\u2019t be queried,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp to now, football has been run like an amateur activity and unless real serious steps are taken to go professional in terms of mindset and management culture, let us forget about things changing in the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Super League of Malawi (Sulom) is set to implement the much talked about Lilongwe Declaration signed by clubs in 2009, but doubts are on the contentious issue of the number of teams from an institution that should be allowed in the Super League. Back in 2009, The Lilongwe Declaration, following advice from Fifa development officer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2540,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions\/2540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}