Longer wait for Big Bullets, Mighty Wanderers stadia

Crowd pullers Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers will have to endure a long wait for their stadia to be completed after Finance Minister Felix Mlusu left out the two projects in the 2021/22 budget.

Youth and Sports Minister Ulemu Msungama said funding for the Blantyre projects would be made in the next financial year.

In its first budget last year, the Tonse Alliance government also failed to allocate resources to the two projects which then president Peter Mutharika promised as he campaigned for re-election in the 2019 presidential election.

However, Msungama insisted that the government will not abandon the projects.

“We will proceed with the projects. But, looking at the resource envelope, we decided to focus much on the Sports Complex and Aquatic Sports Complex as we are hosting Region Five Games next year.

“The contractor is aware that the project will depend on the resource envelope. We know that the stadia for Bullets and Wanderers are also equally important and, hopefully, in next year’s, budget, there will be some allocation.”

The Nomads’ stadium is at Soche whereas Bullets’ lies near Moneymen Club along Chikwawa Road.

Construction for the projects stalled due to lack of funds.

Wanderers General Secretary Fadwick Matemba said they were yet to engage the government on the matter.

“We are still relatively new as a committee, so this will be one of the matters that we will be following closely,” Matemba said.

In the 2019/20 national budget, the projects were allocated K1.6 billion.

The combined cost of the projects is about K7 billion.

China Civil Engineering Construction Company emerged successful bidders for Bullets’ stadium whereas Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company was chosen for the Nomads’ facility.

Wanderers and Bullets have never owned a home ground before and depend on the government-owned Kamuzu Stadium for their home matches.