I won’t stand again—Nyamilandu

Tom Sangala November 19, 2017

369 1 minute read

Football Association of Malawi (Fam) President, Walter Nyamilandu, has, once again, reiterated that he would pack up his bags and leave Mpira Village at the end of his fourth four-year term in 2019.
But can Nyamilandu be trusted this time around, knowing his similar antics throughout his terms of office since 2004?
“I do not know why people (laughs) keep on asking me the same question. I have made it clear many times and the position remains the same. I do not know why I should be repeating it,” Nyamilandu said during the week.
The Fam boss, who was re-elected in 2015, has the tendency to, before elections, claim that he would not contest, only to make a U-turn.
The former Be Forward Wanderers defender is good at testing the waters.
In view of his antics, there is speculation that he might contest again for the presidency beyond 2019.
There is also speculation that Nyamilandu has handpicked his successor.
But Nyamilandu trashed reports suggesting that he was grooming some Executive Committee members, including Daud Suleiman, to take over the presidency.
“There would be a natural progression. The system will take charge of that. In anything that we do, there will always be speculation and we cannot stop it,” he added.
In a separate interview, Suleiman said he was satisfied with serving Fam as an executive member.
“I am just an executive member at the moment and my desire is to work hard so that the Harvest Manifesto [for Nyamilandu] is successful. I am not interested in standing for the Fam presidency,” Suleiman said.
Early this year, Fam First Vice-President, James Mwenda, and another executive committee member, Daudi Mtanthiko, were also touted as potential Nyamilandu successors.
But Mwenda and Mtanthiko insisted that they do not harbour ambitions for the Fam presidency. More aspirants are likely to emerge as we get closer to 2019.
At a recent meeting held in Mangochi, delegates proposed a three-year-term limit for the association’s president in line with Fifa statues.
However, the delegates stunned many by proposing the removal of a bachelor’s degree as a minimum academic qualification for a Fam presidential aspirants and their two deputies.