Fam drills Super League teams on Club Licencing

Football Association of Malawi (Fam) hosted a two-day Club Licencing National Workshop at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe over the weekend.

The meeting, which attracted all 16 Super League teams, was, among other things, aimed at training the teams in Club Licencing Regulations Framework, Caf Club Licencing Online Platform as well as refresher on the Fifa Connect platform.

Chairperson for the Fam Club Licencing Committee Madalitso Kuyera said the association will be conducting periodical inspection to ensure that clubs are complying with the requirements.

“The modern game has to be run professionally and there is a lot that is happening in football. So, we do not want Malawi to be left behind. We have to embrace technology and all requirements in the modern game,” Kuyera said.

The association has added new criteria, which is called Business and Commercial Criteria, which is aimed at assisting clubs to look for new and different sources of revenue in addition to existing ones including gate revenue and sponsorship.

On top of that, each club must own or partner a registered women’s football team.

In addition, Fam has changed the Club Licensing grading system from ‘B’ Criteria, where determination was based on evaluation scores in terms of percentages upon fulfilment of all or some of the requirements, to ‘A’ Criteria which is mandatory.

Failure to meet any mandatory or compulsory requirement will be deemed as failure to comply. On behalf of the clubs, Kamuzu Barracks General Secretary Christopher Njeula said some of the requirements need time to be fully implemented.

“All the clubs are struggling with the men’s teams; so, it will be a tall order to force them to have women’s teams,” Njeula said.

Club licencing was designed in five requirements namely sporting, infrastructure, personnel and administration, legal and financial criteria.