About 229 people received Covid vaccines to watch the Blantyre derby between Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers at Kamuzu Stadium on Sunday.
The development came after the authorities had introduced Covid vaccine as one of the requirements for people to watch the TNM Super League derby following the easing of coronavirus restrictions.
Blantyre District Health Officer Gift Kalawazira was, however, happy with the number that got vaccinated at Kamuzu Stadium.
“Registering such a number for the first time is not bad. This is an on-going exercise. We commend Super league of Malawi and other stakeholders including the teams for their cooperation in the whole exercise. We believe we have saved a life or lives as a result of these jabs,” he said.
Sulom President Tiya Somba-Banda said they were happy with both the progress made on the vaccination campaign and the number of people that watched the game.
“We are coming from a background where spectators were not allowed to watch games and to have that sizable crowd we can’t complain. We are just grateful to the government for allowing supporters to start watching games again,” he said.
The game fetched K4,931,500 million in gate collections, with the Police receiving K450,000 while stewards got K400,000.
Both teams got K999,275,000 each while ground owners received K768,673,000. Sulom got 307,469,000 .
Bullets Chief Administration Officer Albert Chigoga said they were not satisfied with the turnup and gate revenue.
“We expected a lot of fans to watch the derby having missed most games due to Covid restrictions. I think others were not sure if they were going to get vaccinated in time and watch the derby. We needed massive sensitisation to attract \ crowds,” he said.
The race for the championship has been blown wide open following Wanderers’ historic win over Bullets.
Bullets still top the table with 56 points from 28 games whereas Silver lie second with a point-less from the same number of games. Wanderers remain fifth with 51 points from 27 games.
Peter Fote is a Sports Journalist with huge experience in radio and Television reporting, production and presentation. He once worked with Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and is currently working for Times Media Group.