Blame game
A blame game has ensued between Football Association of Malawi (Fam) and Police on the lack of progress over counterfeit tickets spotted during Saturday’s Charity Shield involving Nyasa Big Bullets and Be Forward Wanderers at Civo Stadium.
While Fam is insisting that it lodged a formal complaint to police, the law enforcers claim that the association only made a verbal complaint during the match day.
Fam Marketing and Commercial Director, Limbani Matola, Wednesday said the police should have acted swiftly to arrest those found with the counterfeit tickets after discovering the anomalies.
“We are regretting that we missed an opportunity to gather evidence on the actual source of the fake tickets. As Fam, we are ready to cooperate with the police on the investigations of the matter. It is sad that now there are only allegations, accusations and finger-pointing because no one was arrested selling the fake tickets,” Matola explained.
However, Matola said some of the Charity Shield’s objectives were fully achieved, except for raising funds for the purchase of trolleys at Kamuzu Central Hospital.
“The objectives of the Fam Charity Shield was to raise awareness on the importance of blood donation, mobilise and encourage Malawians of good will to donate blood and also raise resources through gate-takings for buying medical supplies for KCH. All the above, except the last one, were fully and squarely achieved,” reads part of the statement from Fam.
Lilongwe Police spokesperson, Kingsley Dandaula, insisted that Fam had not lodged an official complaint, five days after the scam.
“Not to my knowledge. I am yet to be briefed if Fam has written us to complain on the matter,” Dandaula said.
Matola eventually admitted that they lodged a verbal complaint to the police. During the game, some fans entered the stadium using uncharted routes.
The inaugural Charity Shield grossed K11, 477,000 in gate revenue with less than K2 million left in Fam’s coffers for the buying of the hospital’s equipment.
Fam outsourced gate management to firms such as Fellowship Association of Malawi (Fama), whose official, Japhet Majekete, yesterday clarified that his team did not handle cash.
“In our case, we were just assigned to monitor tickets. In fact, it was our guys who spotted the fake tickets and reported to the authorities. There are several challenges with the advance ticket selling system as some people beat security features,” Majekete explained.
Bullets clinched the Charity Shield after beating rivals, Wanderers 2-0 with Muhammad Sulumba and Chiukepo Msowoya on target.
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