Super League of Malawi (Sulom) has disclosed that it will meet to discuss on the way forward to stop the Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) from getting five percent of gate revenue from Super League matches, Malawi News Sport has learnt.
This comes after the impasse between Sulom and the council on the matter.
The elite league governing body had requested the sports overseeing institution to surrender its five percent but it was rejected.
Sulom President Gilbert Mittawa insisted that the Council was milking a thin cow.
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“We want the council to stop getting the five percent [it gets from super league gate collections]. It is a long time they[ the council] start contributing towards teams and not just milking them. In any event, almost all stadiums are owned by the government so they get 25 percent from the games through stadium levy,” Mittawa said.
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Currently, Council gets five percent from the Super League matches, no matter how little the gate collections are.
For instance, some Super League matches gross as little as K200,000.
“We asked the council to cede its five percent but they refused. As Sulom Exco [executive committee], we want to agree on the way forward because we believe the financial challenges our teams face, it should be the council to give teams money not to take money from them,” he said.
Currently, Super League teams get 27.5 percent of gate revenue share after the Football Association of Malawi (Fam) surrendered its five percent cut.
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Fam approved the decision during last year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mangochi.
But MNCS Chief Executive Office Henry Kamata said nothing had changed after the institution made its stance clear.
“The position of MNCS on the matter was already communicated to Fam in May. Since then, nothing has changed, and we have not received a new call on the matter,” Kamata said.
But since 2023, the council had been pushing for gate sharing reforms to ensure that clubs benefit more from the games.
Council had been insisting that the gate sharing percentage should be reviewed.
Sports analyst George Kaudza Masina said Sulom should find alternatives to generate resources.
“Let Sulom find a better way of generating finances for the benefit of the clubs than fighting for the council’s five percent cut which is too minimal.
“The argument has been that the five percent benefit to the clubs does not make a business sense as it makes the clubs to be lazy with the commercialisation drive as it means clubs want to be surviving on gate revenues which is unattainable,” he said.
But Kaudza-Masina also urged Sulom to exercise caution on the matter.
“Even the cut from Fam which has been implemented this season, despite being a good gesture from the national football governing body, in reality, this was not necessary as Fam needs those funds too.
“For Sulom, before asking MNCS to stop getting the five percent from the gate revenues, let them go back to the genesis of it all and maybe lobby the government to repeal the same,” he said.
Majority of the local clubs do not have stable sponsorship. They use gate revenue to supplement their budgets.
