Apparently, Football Association of Malawi (Fam) President Fleetwood Haiya has clocked one year in office.
On December 16 last year, Haiya contested for the Fam presidency against Walter Nyamilandu, the only man who took the Malawi National Football Team—that is, the senior side—to the Africa Cup of Nations finals twice, in 2010 and 2022.
In 2012, the Malawi National Football Team, also known as the Flames, missed Afcon qualification by a whisker.
As such, when Haiya— who was then serving as Super League of Malawi president— announced that he would contest against Nyamilandu, who was seeking another term, those of us who understand football knew that it would be an interesting contest.
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In fact, those of us who understand Malawi football knew that Nyamilandu had a fight on his hands; a fight that would be more intense than the one he had against James Mwenda, who is now serving Malawians in another capacity in Salima, where he is the District Commissioner (DC).
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And, man, Mwenda can call the shots! Last week, he told non-governmental organisations that operate without the council’s approval in the lakeshore district to register or face the consequences. He said the tendency of implementing projects without informing council officials was leading to duplication of efforts.
Surely, Mwenda is enjoying his role as DC—especially after going through the so-unenjoyable experience of defeat to Nyamilandu at the Fam elections.
Anyway, Mwenda is enjoying his work now; so is Haiya, who marked one year in office at Fam earlier this week.
He is the chief at Mpira House in Chiwembe Township, the headquarters of Fam. To get there, he had to defeat Nyamilandu by 23 votes to 13 during the association’s polls held in Mzuzu City.
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And, as if blowing his own trumpet, Haiya did not want to let the one-year anniversary pass him by. In a Facebook post, Haiya pledged to continue with his ‘Transforming the Game’ agenda.
“Today marks exactly one year since I assumed the office of Fam President with a commitment to the agenda of transforming our football. I am proud to say we have made significant strides over the past year and, together, we are on a path to uplift Malawian football to greater heights.
“After laying a solid foundation, we embark on a mission to realise our collective aspirations of making Malawi a dominant football nation not only in this part of the world but globally as well. Let us all join forces to change our football landscape,” Haiya said.
Anyway, when I ‘heard’ him uttering the words “after laying a solid foundation”, I laughed my lungs out. I laughed because Haiya has made some of the unreasonable decisions a Fam president can ever make. For instance, this month, the Malawi Under-17 National Football Team participated in activities at the 2024 Cosafa Youth Championships in South Africa.
Before the match against Mozambique during the afternoon of December 4, the team’s coach Enos Chatama was optimistic that his boys would do well in the match, which was staged at Wits University, Johannesburg, in the Rainbow Nation.
However, I knew that the coach was just bluffing; the under-17 players had the worst time in their lives after the leaders at Fam decided that the boys were not good enough to travel to South Africa by plane.
And, so, the leaders at Fam— in their wisdom—decided to send the innocent boys to South Africa by bus—of all modes of transport. The leaders at Fam decided to ‘punish’ the boys with fatigue and boredom combined, as they, slowly, made it from Malawi, via Mozambique and Zimbabwe, to South Africa—a distance too long and unbearable for those innocent boys.
In fact, the junior Flames arrived in Johannesburg on Monday, December 2, having travelled from Blantyre. The following day, they had a “loosening” training session ahead of the match against Mozambique. In their wisdom, the leaders at Fam felt that a ‘loosening session’ was enough to make the boys feel like they had flown [by plane] from Blantyre to Johannesburg. What lopsided thinking!
Believe you me, that is what they mean by ‘Transforming the Game’. Transforming the game by forcing under-17 boys to travel from Blantyre to Johannesburg by road? What are you, people at Fam, thinking?
By making those innocent boys take the long, arduous trip to the Rainbow Nation, you, people at Fam, were setting the boys up for failure.
The last time the under-17 team participated in the tournament was in 2022 in Lilongwe, where the boys finished on third position.
In South Africa, the performances were worse than those of 2022, meaning that the team has missed out on Caf TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations because the matches were serving as a qualifier for the Afcon.
Now you see what poor decisions can do to a nation? They can cost it (a nation) a spot at tournaments as important as Afcon. So, Fam has goofed and there was no reason to celebrate one year of such kind of decisions!
Then there is the clueless Malawi National Football Team—I mean, the senior side. Under the leadership of Haiya, the senior side became punching bags in the Afcon qualifies.
So poor was the team that it failed to stand the heat against Burundi and other less fancies sides. Indeed, not only did the Flames fail to score; they shipped in bucketful of goals.
Only when caretaker coach Kalisto Pasuwa, interim assistant coach Peter Mponda and deputy assistant coach Pritchard Mwansa take over the mantle from Patrick Mabedi did the Flames manage a draw and, then, a win. But it was too little too late to save Mpira House!
And, against such a background, someone has the temerity to ‘celebrate’ one year in office? My foot!
The thing is, under Haiya, Malawi football is retrogressing, more so because under-17 boys are being exposed to harsh conditions at a tender age, making Malawi football’s journey to the future perilous.
