Football Association of Malawi (Fam) president Fleetwood Haiya has said plans are underway to unify all football competition awards.
If implemented, it will mean that FDH Bank Cup, TNM Super League, Castel Challenge Cup and Airtel Top 8 award ceremonies will be held at the same time and venue.
Addressing the media on Wednesday night during the 2023 Castel Challenge Cup awards ceremony at Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre, Haiya said there is need for Malawi football to borrow a leaf from what other countries are doing.
“Even Fifa also takes that path where we see awards being given out at one function. This will not just be restricted to elite football. Other levels of the game will also be included.
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All we are saying is that we need to have one ceremony where all awards will be given out. We will put in place a committee that will oversee this process and decide how best we can implement it.
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“Let me say that on March 15 we have an event we are calling football expo where we will tell the world what Fam is, what it can do, the value it brings on the market and what our partners need to come and do with us. This will also be a corporate event where the issue of holding one awards ceremony will be fully deliberated upon,” Haiya said.
He however said the decision to hold one awards ceremony does not mean that sponsors will be stopped from holding their own events.
“We will give space to our sponsors should they wish to do their own award ceremonies,” Haiya said.
However, former Fam general secretary George Kaudza-Masina, a Business Administration PhD holder and a chartered marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK), said while the move could be easy for Fam to implement, it might not make business sense on the part of the sponsors.
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Kaudza-Masina, who is also Silver Strikers board chairperson, said it has to be appreciated that sponsors are individuals and they have to be treated as such.
“As a sponsor, visibility is the ultimate motivation for sponsorship where there might be a conflict in the case of direct competitors. At the same time, a big sponsor might dwarf the average ones. Worse still, you might need a huge platform to accommodate all of them at the same time.
“As such, let the current situation continue as this idea might be shot down in the sponsors’ boardrooms for business and marketing purposes,” he said.
After TNM and Castel have conducted their award ceremonies, the soccer fraternity is anxiously waiting to witness Airtel Top 8 and FDH Bank Cup events before the new season kicks off on March 30.
FDH Bank Cup was the first competition to be concluded in the 2023 season, followed by the TNM Super League.
Castel Challenge Cup followed with Airtel Top 8 being the last.
FCB Nyasa Big Bullets won all the trophies to complete a clean sweep after also bagging the NBS Bank Charity Shield.
