Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Legal Committee Chairperson, Jabbar Alide, has said Fifa statutes that restrict football peoples\u2019 involvement in mainstream politics cannot affect Nyasa Big Bullets winger Fischer Kondowe.
\nThe Daily Times had asked Jabbar for his interpretation of the world football governing body\u2019s statutes in view of Kondowe\u2019s joining of main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) as an aspirant for Blantyre City South Constituency legislator seat.
\n\u201cI can only respond on behalf of Fam [and] not Fifa. Our statutes currently provide that an Executive Committee member of Fam shall not hold any political position during the time they are serving as a member.
\n\u201cOur members (affiliates) have similar provisions (I am certain). For a player like Fischer, he is not covered under the Fam provision. The respective clubs should have their own guiding documents and policies on this,\u201d the Fam Executive Committee member said.
\nKondowe yesterday said he informed Bullets\u2019 officials about his intention to join politics.
\n\u201cAs for the Fifa statutes, the restriction only applies to football administrators, but I am just a player. These are different professions,\u201d he said.
\nSuper League of Malawi\u2019s (Sulom) rules and regulations are silent on the involvement of footballers in politics.
\nThe league governing body\u2019s General Secretary, Williams Banda, said the matter can best be addressed by Bullets.
\n\u201cIf he becomes an honourable Member of Parliament and still plays, it would be the first of its kind in Malawi. Maybe this is wake-up call that there is need to review the statutes,\u201d Banda said.
\nBullets\u2019 Chief Executive Officer, Fleetwood Haiya, said Kondowe will continue to play for the People\u2019s Team.
\n\u201cBullets is a team for people of all walks of life. We have no issues with Fisher\u2019s choice to join politics. He has chosen to go to the MCP and that is his choice. But he remains our player up to the end of his contract,\u201d Haiya said.
\nHe said the player\u2019s future with the club will only be decided when his contract expires and until then, Kondowe will continue to serve Bullets.
\n\u201cWe do not know his plans yet. He has not communicated to us officially about his political career. So we are still treating him as our player,\u201d Haiya said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Legal Committee Chairperson, Jabbar Alide, has said Fifa statutes that restrict football peoples\u2019 involvement in mainstream politics cannot affect Nyasa Big Bullets winger Fischer Kondowe. The Daily Times had asked Jabbar for his interpretation of the world football governing body\u2019s statutes in view of Kondowe\u2019s joining of main opposition Malawi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59244","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\/59244","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=59244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59248,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59244\/revisions\/59248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}