Football Association of Malawi\u2019s (Fam) next elections are scheduled for next year, so it is not surprising that, behind the scenes, aspirants are angling for the association\u2019s presidency and other positions.
\nSome officials are becoming suspiciously too nice, gracing every football activity so as to be seen as passionate for football.
\nOthers officials have gone back to night schools to mask the degree of their intellectual gaps.
\nIt is interesting that every Jim and Jack think they can be Fam president. Football looks simple to manage when you are on the couch and terraces.
\nFootball needs former players to take up leadership positions but merit has to be the overriding factor.
\nIf being a football great is in itself the currency for the Fam presidency, then we can as well say Blantyre Water Board\u2019s best plumber would make a better chief executive officer.
\nLeadership is about intellectual depth, maturity, stamina, emotional balance and strategic thinking.
\nLeadership is about using resources prudently and managing expectations of the football public from the common fan in Chibavi and Mbayani townships to players, coaches, sponsors and politicians.
\nFootball administration is more complicated than we think. Leaders need the sophistication required to manage the game that is so scientific and commercial.
\nThe next Fam president has to, obviously, be better than the incumbent and the performance of the national teams should be the first benchmark of success.
\nThe next Fam president does not necessarily need to be someone with a background in football but a strategist and an original thinker.
\nPaul Chiyangwa is not highly-educated but ascended to Zimbabwe Football Association\u2019s presidency before becoming Council of Southern Africa Football Association\u2019s boss owing to his show-business acumen.
\nFootball Association of Zambia president, Andrew Kamanga, holds an MBA and is a chartered accountant. He runs a power utility company.
\nThe big question is who should be the next Fam president?
\nThere are many people with the pedigree to run Fam but they are either or when they are interested, their attitude betrays them.
\nThe naivety of those who have the potential to run local football has only served to cement the positions of those in football power.
\nThere are many top people in the private and public sector who think they are what the medicine-man ordered for sick Malawi football.
\nUnfortunately, when going into football administration, these aspirants are driven by anger, naivety and theory derived from spectatorship.
\nThese high profile people think that because they are general managers and chief executive officers, then they know everything about local football.
\nI was shocked this other day when a high profile legal practitioner asked for my analysis of the ills of Malawi football.
\nBut before I could speak, he was lecturing me on local football. He was entitled to his opinion but his arguments were theoretical and ill-informed.
\nThat is the thinking of most Fam presidential aspirants. They lack the humility, wisdom and patience to understand the football system before vying for the hot seat. They want to be Fam president today.
\nOn social media, you find these men projecting themselves as experts in economics, law, sports, music, poetry and media. They are experts in everything.
\nWith that attitude, forget about getting a single vote from the conservative and selfish affiliates of Fam. It is a sad situation that has resulted into a state of continued football capture. We are all captured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Football Association of Malawi\u2019s (Fam) next elections are scheduled for next year, so it is not surprising that, behind the scenes, aspirants are angling for the association\u2019s presidency and other positions. Some officials are becoming suspiciously too nice, gracing every football activity so as to be seen as passionate for football. Others officials have gone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59363","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\/59363","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=59363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59364,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59363\/revisions\/59364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}