STADIUM-GATE, THE FRESH MERCILESS BLOW TO THE GAME OF FOOTBALL IN MALAWI

Part of the Kamuzu stadium: pic by Vincent Eliya

 

Well, it is another somber chapter in these series of wise sports articles. In this article it must be foretold that the tone and mood therein are ruthless, unkind, reactive and dingy. Probably the audience will crystalline the reasons behind such a dismal reaction by reading between the lines of the massage. Inspired by the spirit of sports it has again honored the author to put hands together for the wonderful and active audience of this forum. 

During the previous writing on the quality of players as being among the five big sins committed by the Malawi national football team, the closing song was sung somewhat hastily as the sermon was not completely finished. Perhaps, many people in the audience had started dozing off listening to the long higgledy-piggledy sort of preaching. After all living in a very competitive online services era, some people had to rush for Whatsapp, Facebook, Imo, Wechat, Zorpia, Skype, BBM and Instalgram among others, but still thanks for reading it whether partly or exclusively. 

 In that piece of writing, the quality of players that kick the ball on the pitch were scrutinized but the player number twelve, the supporters, was not hitched. Leaving no stone unturned, the quality of supporters too has dwindled over the past years. Surely, the impact of supporters in influencing the play on the pitch cannot be overemphasized. The examples are numerous on how various teams have used the number twelve player constructively to create unfavorable atmosphere for the opponents through tireless chanting, booing, dancing and noising. To cut this discourse from becoming longer, too, date the article on ‘The shoddy supporting echelons of the Malawi Football Supporters’             

The unearthed opportunities that sports can bring to the nation will begin to be naked by the collective ideas of the participants on this forum. These melancholic chapters will, perhaps, show us the rotten side of the governing bodies when handling sports issues including financial management. The author hopes to annotate the activities of various sports governing bodies in a bid to uproot various malpractices in his forthcoming article called ‘Fifa-gate, eyebrows for Malawi sports governing bodies’ .

   

The preacher-man has taken a recess on the discussion of five big sins of the Malawi National Football Team the Flames deliberately to address the issue of money swindling from gate collections that has affected the game of football over the recent times. It is a point of concern as it has dented the image of the soccer administration but also negatively affected the clubs. With the Flames on break from action in the coming weeks, the episode of the five big sins will be coming at intervals to give a chance to the club issues, currently in action, be addressed.  Tackling of this infamous scandal coined as stadium-gate, has come amid fears of re-occurrence in the big games lined-up in the Standard Bank Malawi knockout trophy this week up to the finals.  

      

Lovers of other various sports activities have not been sidelined on this forum. The author has a wide sharp eye to reach to even the so called minor sporting activities. Sports such as phada, bawo, tchuwa, draft, and you name the list; all will have the space here. 

The call for netball issues have also been made by several participants of this forum who, like the author, think have put Malawi on the map but only to receive little attention. In another article on ‘The Malawi National Netball Team, The Queens win games; drab appreciation, need for specialization’ all women national netball team issues will be digested.

The author seems to have pale eyes now having wept for a long time on what the after-multiparty democracy has brought to the nation.  If the ancestors decide to arise from their sleeping graves to live in this country for a day, surely they would suppurate too. Perhaps we can take a delicate stand to think the prevailing problems are point of concern for the whole world than Malawi alone. The various freedoms that the world has been fighting and advocating for have not left out the freedoms to irresponsibility, unaccountability and selfishness. 

The author in his line of profession as a journalist is among the members of the press who had attended various press conferences and media activities at the onset of infamous government money-scandal revelations also called cash-gate.

That perhaps is the reason the author tends to have no kind words on money swindlers anywhere. He recalls the magnitude of how people had suffered to access basic needs yet somebody, or some few individuals could syphon large sums of taxpayers’ money to afford a prodigal living. M-m-m the writer here is losing temper. It is high time he must return to talk about sports maybe he can cool down.

This ecclesiast has discovered that the problem is not with the office bearers but the generation of the moment which is being associated with non-permanence. Arguably, there has been a spate of money swindling allegations reported in various institutions including the Holy grounds.  Abomination! Today the trust for a person on monetary issues has been dented regardless of whether that person is a clergy, politician, artist, athlete, chief, footballer and shamefully even a mere supporter- ha-ha.

Sadly, the sports fraternity has experienced a wave of money-missing cases from the gate collections. 

Perhaps nobody, again, knows who swindles, when did it start and how do the perpetrators break the money bag. What is partially known is that a certain gate cashier was reported in the newspaper to have been caught red-handed with cash amounting to more than sixty thousand kwacha. The money was found in the inside of his pair of trousers.  Surely, this revelation exposed porous financial safety and management at the stadiums and the whole fee collection system. The writer has therefore taken a step further to scrutinize certain conducts that have likeliness to dent the collection system. 

 

The audience needs to be reminded that in Malawi, gate collection is the chief source of funding for clubs that do not have sponsorship. At this juncture, it honors the author to appreciate all clubs supporters who, never give up despite the misconducts, still come in large numbers and pay the needed fee to watch the games while sponsoring their teams.  

 

Be Forward Wanderers among few clubs with sponsorship

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pic sportsmalawi

Let us have a short quiz. Did you know that the supporters of clubs that have sponsorship, too, help to fund the teams with no sponsor? How?  Oh yeah, the Mighty Be forward Wanderers, a team sponsored by Be Forward, supporters come out in large numbers to watch their team playing the unsponsored Big Bullets Club in the usual highly-tempered Blantyre derby. In the end the both clubs receive equal amount of money regardless of whose supporters contributed more than the other. If the teams could borrow this philosophy to understand how they interdepend on each other, surely there could have been no cases of violence. The clubs would have understood that they still need support of the rival supporters.

 

Mighty Be forward against Bullets: pic sportsmalawi

With the current economic ticks, there are two possible lapses in the gate fee system. The author then thinks there are also two possible solutions to the anomalies unless they are to do with magic pilfering where prophets would be needed to cleanse the mess. Ha-ha-ha leave the prophets alone please, nobody would want to see somebody turning into a snake should the oracle goofs like the Zambian prophet! 

The pathetic side of this stadium-gate is that it comes at a time when the Malawi national stadium, the Kamuzu stadium, cannot afford even a Television screen inside. M-m-m the preacher again wants to draw a surprise attention here. Yes, watch out in another article called ‘Poor stadium facilities aide soccer fiasco”. Memories are fresh of how some Flames players struggled in the second game at the AFCON 2010. Partly, it was seen that the players spent their time watching themselves on the screen while their opponents were advancing. Ha-ha-ha exception perhaps was to the professionals who had been exposed to being filmed at their respective rich (only) clubs.   

Worst still, many clubs in the country apart from few teams sponsored by some government agencies cannot even afford their own stadium. These clubs are the Silver Strikers (sponsored by the Reserve Bank of Malawi) that have Silver stadium and the Civo Service United that owns Civo stadium. Surprisingly both teams are from Lilongwe, the central region of Malawi. The rest of the big clubs in the country have to scramble for stadiums as their home ground. Till this date, Mighty Be forward Wanderers and Big Bullets use Kamuzu stadium as their home ground. Laughable indeed, the home and away fixtures between these two giants is the same venue. 

The stadium-gate is even coming at a time when status of footballers in the country is pathetic owing to little money they receive from their clubs. Recently, just last Sunday after the Tanzania game, some national football team players were seen at Chiwembe carrying bags scrambling for public transport to return to their respective homes. Yes, the players cannot afford even these cheap ‘Japanese cars’ that have flooded the Malawi highways.       

Yes, stadium-gate. The fact remains that the country is going through economic turmoil. And the vast population is the victim of this catastrophe. As such it is a somewhat temptation to entrust a person to collect cash at the stadium gate, keep it for a while and redirect it to the responsible authorities safely.  The possibility that this person will think about their problems when receiving the cash is high. Remember, these are individuals born of flesh as well, with biblical origin from Adam and Eve. And we all know the repercussion even without reciting a verse in the book of Genesis.   

After all, little is known of the amount such particular cashiers receive after the job. If their perks are coins and you expect them to return all green-reserve-bank value authorized papers (bank notes) collected at the gate m-m-m that is a faithful lie.  

The first suspicion could go to the gate men team. There could be a possibility that they ply their trade by allowing entry of supporters at a very cheap fee without issuing tickets. There could also be a possibility of having separate ‘fake’ receipt books in which they pluck the receipts for those who pay at the gate, who knows. Then unsurprisingly the stadium can be seen to be full to the capacity but the announced figures of gate collections being seemingly mad.

Secondly, there is sketchy information on the number of officials that are allowed free entry, if any. It can perhaps be discovered that there are numerous officials’ tickets only to be used by ghost officials. Mark the author correct please, he doesn’t know any ghost official yet. But the fact is that the officials have friends, associates and relatives that may access these officials’ tickets. Predictably, the officials fill up the places in the Covered stands leaving the open stand for a poor supporter.

This poor supporter, from Ndirande, Chilomoni, Chilobwe or Chirimba to mention a few locations of soccer supporter bases in Blantyre,  has to face the wrath of scorching sun, socking rain, and other weather botches but has to shout, cheer and dance for the team, having paid a fee, in the name of patriotism. Yet somebody sits comfortably in the covered stands and cannot even cheer despite being exempted from the fee of the luxurious seats. This freed person, who would have otherwise afforded to pay for the covered stands, only knows chatting on an expensive smartphone or other gadgets. Much will be looked at this when discussing ‘The narrative review of the game of football, worthy the proud?’  Honestly, the author is not jealousy of the smartphones, IPhones, and other gadgets that people have or hates bringing them to the stadium, it is development. But to put it crystal clear please be a responsible citizen and pay for your seat! 

Fans watching a game from open stands

For a short while, let us do a bit of cheap accounting although the author is not a good mathematician. ‘Somebody has taken four friends into the VIP, worthy K10, 000 a seat, for free. And twenty faithful and responsible supporters pay their k1, 000 each for the open stands. Calculate the lost money even without using any gadget.’

At this point, the left and right turns can be made even to top people in the various hierarchies. There is sketchy information on whether some honorable members who decide to support the team through their presence really buy the tickets. It is known of some top artists, MPs and Ministers that even buy tickets for supporters, that is a plausible gesture. Any covered stand seat which goes for free is a big financial loss, a number of times than the open stand despite both contributing to the ruthless blow.     

The bottom line is that all these efforts are to relief teams from the economic calamity following their failure to exploit various money making avenues in the game of football. The author hopes to discuss this issue at length and his thinking in the subsequent article ‘unexploited financing tools, poor football economics in Malawi’.

Meanwhile, temporarily, while the clubs continue to depend on the gate collections here are a few cushioning suggestions to the prevailing gate money stampedes. Firstly, there is need to revisit the process and activities surrounding tickets production to ensure security. Surely, if there are officials to be exempted at the stadium gate, let them have a ticket printed in their name and be confirmed with valid identity card on entering. This can help to minimize ghost officials. 

Secondly, the governing body can think of hiring banks in the gate collection process. For instance, the management can hire a bank that can elect its kiosk(s) at the stadium. Everybody that wants to buy a ticket will have to pay at the bank cashier in the kiosk(s), and then get a ticket to show at the entrance. To be more secure, the bank can decide to install a security device system at the stadium entrance where finger prints or eyes of the paid individual(s) can be detected and then allowed the entry.  

 
The process can be fast, secure and trustworthy. Once the money has been collected, the bank can process directly into the accounts of various recipients based on the given instructions without any person having a hand on the physical cash.The device at the entrance can also be helpful to record the figures of people that have occupied the open stands and those that have taken seats in the covered. In the end the people will be able to know the exact number of people that have watched a particular game. Ha-ha-ha sounds interesting, not so? Never say I did not tell you! 
 

Another approach is to involve the leagues’ sponsoring companies into the gate collection theology. A good example is the TNM which sponsors the super league. Such a company knows various secure ways of selling products and services. The author has an idea. The people can buy tickets from the company’s street agents or through various mobile purchasing systems such as Mpamba. Then a serial number can be designed to a ticket to be confirmed at the stadium entrance.  

   

There is only one Malawi in the world. And nobody from elsewhere can take care of it apart from its citizens. Love your country; report, abstain and resist any form of corruption and money swindling! Stop stadium-gate please to develop sports.   

                                                         

 But in case, unluckily, all these given techniques fail to achieve a result, m-m-m then you can hire the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to institute a tax special for stadium entrance ha-ha-ha leave the innocent Malawians alone, already they are struggling to cough out money through numerous taxation on everything they do including even chatting on the internet to read these articles of wisdom!!!