Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has expressed excitement after Sunday’s FDH Bank Cup final between eventual champions FCB Nyasa Big Bullets and Mafco generated K39 million in gate revenue at Bingu National Stadium.
“We are indeed quite happy with the amount of revenue generated. In fact, this is more than what we projected in light of the operating context. The organising team and all service providers did put up a good job against several risk factors,” Fam Commercial and Marketing Director Limbani Matola said.
He said they are more pleased with a violence-free finale.
“The chaotic scenes during the last match at the same venue scared some sections of football fans. The match was intrinsically a one sided fan-base affair and the fuel scarcity aggravated the challenges as many fans had transportation problems to come to the stadium.
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“This is why we would like to take a moment to salute all stakeholders for great collaboration and teamwork which has culminated in this success,” he said.
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Matola hailed FDH Bank, the two participating teams, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, BNS management, Nitel and all the security agents including the Malawi Police Service.
“Lastly, we would like to thank the supporters of both teams for displaying good behaviour. Indeed they, once again, proved that football remains truly a beautiful game. Congratulations to Bullets for emerging champions of FDH Bank Cup 2023,” he said.
Similarly, FDH Bank Managing Director Noel Mkulichi said they are equally satisfied with how the tournament was organised.
“I must say that from the beginning to the end we haven’t had violence. And as a result of that, we want to thank the stakeholders, organisers, security personnel and fans who watched the games and no violence happened.
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“The aim is to ensure that we improve sports in Malawi. As a bank, we have customers that also love sports and we believe we have tried as much as possible to ensure that our customers are kept happy and entertained. We believe that there will be a lot of improvement in terms of sports in Malawi,” he said.
Bullets become the first side to defend the cup having defeated Mafco 3-0 following a Lanjesi Nkhoma brace and Ephraim Kondowe strike.
