Super League, Regional Leagues to get sponsorship from Fam

By Antony Isaiah Jr:……..

The Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has pumped in K175 Million to the Super League and Regional Leagues as one way of fulfilling its Strategic Intentions of making Malawi’s Elite League attractive which includes Empowering Super League of Malawi (Sulom) to Accelerate Professionalism of Malawi Football and Elite League Value repositioning.

The Association’s boss, Walter Nyamilandu made the announcement on Thursday in Blantyre, Mpira Village during the press conference on Football Developments where there were review of the year and plans in 2023 and beyond.

FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said in October last year, the FAM Finance and Administration Committee in liaison with FAM management, started the process by scrutinising the development plans from different subcommittees, costing the plans and allocated resources.

“The Committee then presented the draft budget plan to our Member Associations and FAM Executive during a Budget Consultative and Executive meetings respectively in December where revisions were made followed by a provisional approval of the budget pending official approval at the Annual General meeting later in the year.”

From the K175 Million, Super League will get the lion’s share, K100 Million while the remaining M75 Million will go to the Regional Leagues and each league will get K25 Million.

“This money [K175 Million] is over and above the League sponsorship. A Special Task force headed by First Vice President Justice Jabbar Alide with Chimango Munthali, Sulom President and the three Regional Associations Chairpersons as Members will come up with guidelines on how these funds should be distributed and accessed.

“Just like FAM accesses its funding from FIFA in a regulated manner, strict comply and access control measures will be put in place for these funds so that the intended objective to develop the game is achieved.

“I hope its clear, so it’s K75 Million towards the Regions and K100 Million towards the Super League. Over and above the sponsorship that each region is enjoying, we will supplement the sponsorship with K75 Million. Fam understands the economic situation that our sponsors are going through that’s why we are doing this. Our sponsors are ginsing very hard to stretch the sponsorship and we know that the current sponsorship that us being enjoyed by the Regional Leagues and the Super League is not adequate.

“The TNM Sponsorship is not adequate, the money that the Clubs are spending is alot compared to the sponsorship. That’s why we have put in an addition of K100 Million towards the Super League.

“Just like Super League, the sponsorship that the Regional Leagues are getting is not adequate and we want to be the active partners in the regions and we want to be active partners with TNM, that’s we set aside K25 Million for each region and K100 Million for Super League,” Walter was quoted.

For capacity building for coaches, FAM has allocated K60 million for coach education in 2023.Among the expected courses are three CAF C Courses aimed at bringing the gap between the number of CAF B coaches and CAF C coaches which will enable us organise CAF B courses every year going forward.

“We will also hold a customized Digital coaching course for Super League CoachesReferees have been also allocated K60 million for trainings to ensure continued improvement in match officiation,” he added.

To ensure improved infrastructure, FAM has allocated K350 million for Luwinga Project phase four which will see the construction of two playing fields and furniture for the building to end lack of adequate infrastructure in the region.

FAM also has a commitment of USD500,000 from FIFA Foundation for the rehabilitation of the Nsanje Community Centre Ground.In total, the association has pegged expenditure budget at K5 billion and revenue budget at K4.7 billion with FIFA Forward and Malawi government grants as major source of revenue.

“FIFA is rolling out another four-year financial assistance programme to member Associations after the expiry of the forward 2.0 programme on 31st December 2022.
The new cycle of the FIFA Forward 3.0 programme will run from 1st January 2023 to 31st December 2026 and covers the following three strategic areas,” he said.

Operational Funding has been increased by 25% from US$1 million to US$1.250 million per year which translates to an increase from US$4 million to US$5 million for the 4-year period. While the USD650,000 is guaranteed FAM must fulfil ten conditions stipulated in the 3.0 regulations to access the remain USD600,000Projects Funding has been increased by 50% from USD 2 million to USD 3 million for the four-year period.

FAM is also entitled to USD250,000 and USD 50,000 per annum for a period of four years covering National teams international travel costs and football equipment respectively.