The fairy tale of Chipiku Stores Premier Division side Panthers continues after they booted Civil Service United out of the 2024 Castel Challenge Cup after registering a 4-2 victory on post-match penalties at Civo Stadium in Lilongwe on Wednesday.
This means the giant killers will face Mighty Mukuru Wanderers in the semi-finals of the cup.
The match is scheduled for Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre this Saturday after the latter demolished Bangwe All Stars 5-0 at the same venue.
Just like in three previous matches in which they knocked out three Super League teams, Panthers needed penalty shootouts to advance to the semifinals.
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Geoffrey Sumani was the hero when he scored the decisive penalty after Panthers’ goalkeeper Precious Masamba saved Festus Duwe’s spot kick.
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Masamba also saved a penalty from Moses Banda. Happy Kasamba, Anold Masamba and Vincent Mark also scored for Panthers whereas Blessings Malinda and Chifundo Ngapemba scored for Civil.
They have written their own piece of history in the Castel Challenge Cup after eliminating last year’s runners-up and newly crowned TNM Super teams shared K424.3 million whereas ground levy was K201.4 million.
Despite their struggle this season, Bullets are top earners, having pocketed K95.5 million, whereas Mighty Mukuru Wanderers are second with K83.7 million. Last year, Bullets got K89.2 million whereas Wanderers got K65.6 million. Newly crowned TNM Super League champions Silver Strikers are third, having pocketed K56.4 million—up from K37.1 million last season.
Premier Bet Dedza Dynamos are fourth after getting K26.6 million.
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This means, in total, Bullets have pocketed K125 million including the K30 million prize money for finishing third in the TNM Super League.
Wanderers got K123.7 million when their runners-up purse is included.
In total, Silver have earned K156.4 million including their TNM Super League winner’s purse.
Bullets Chief Executive Officer Albert Chigoga said the figure was a true reflection of the season.
“Despite on-the-field struggles in the league, our matches have enjoyed unending support. The revenue report testifies of that fact,” Chigoga said.
Wanderers Chief Executive Officer Panganeni Ndovi said the Nomads could have generated more if they were consistent.
“We could have done better at the end of the season as our match attendance dropped due to a poor string of results,” Ndovi said.
Creck Sporting Club rank fifth, having earned K20.2 million in gate revenue, whereas Civil Service United pocketed K17.7 million. However, Sulom Treasurer Allie Mwachande said mid-week matches affected gate revenue in the second round.
“The patronage during mid-week matches was not good.
“We need to do more to woo more people to patronise matches,” Mwachande said.
Sulom, in partnership with TNM plc, rolled out an E-ticketing system to safeguard revenue.
Before the start of the season, Sulom increased gate charges by 50 percent, having classified matches into categories A, B and C based on last year’s final log table standing.
A standard ticket for category A was pegged at K4, 000, up from K3, 000, whereas matches in B and C categories were priced at K3,000 and K2,000 respectively.
