Carlsberg releases K25m for Flames Cecafa mission
Carlsberg Malawi Limited, official sponsors of Malawi national football team, Tuesday released K25 million to help the Flames participate in 2015 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup in Ethiopia.
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) requested Carlsberg to release funding earlier to enable the Flames travel to Ethiopia on Thursday.
According to an agreement between the two parties, the money is part of Carlsberg Malawi’s K100 million annual subvention to the Flames.
Carlsberg Malawi senior brands manager for alcoholic drinks, Twikale Chirwa, said they realised the importance of the Cecafa tournament ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying games.
“The sponsorship is part of our corporate obligation. We thought it was timely to give it out before the team leaves for Cecafa tournament. As you are aware, there were no activities for the national team and they have just been invited to Ethiopia, so it was important to release the funding,” he said.
Chirwa said they did not set targets for the Flames to avoid piling up pressure on the team.
“As Carlsberg Malawi, we have confidence in the team,” he said.
Fam general secretary, Suzgo Nyirenda, said the money was a timely boost, which has eased the financial burden on the association.
“Carlsberg took about 24 hours to respond to our plea. Our budget was about K40 million. However, we negotiated for better air tickets at Kenyan Airways since at Ethiopian Airways it was a bit expensive,” he said.
“About K7.3 million will be spent on travelling logistics. About K14 million will cater for external travelling allowances for the Flames delegation. The delegation will consist of 25 people, including 19 players and six officials.”
Nyirenda said Flames coach, Ernest Mtawali, would release the squad today.
Meanwhile, Nyirenda said they had successfully negotiated with Super League of Malawi (Sulom) to exempt teams that will contribute over four players to the national team.
“There is no need to panic and the rules will apply,” he said.
Sulom general secretary, Williams Banda, confirmed the discussions with Fam.
“Of course, we understand that some team’s budgets will be compromised because they will dig deeper in their pockets. Otherwise, we are happy that TNM has contributed significantly to the national team as most of the players are coming from the league. We know the players will get international exposure,” he said
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