Preparing to fail
With the local football season on recess and without a Malawi National Football Team coach, some soccer analysts have suggested that Football Association of Malawi (Fam) and the government should speed up the process of recruiting the national team coach.
Fam submitted to the government a proposal of a 50- 50 cost sharing of the coach’s salary.
But the process might take time. The ministry is waiting for President Peter Mutharika to decide on the issue.
The new coach will need time to assess players before African Nations Championship (Chan) matches against Madagascar on the weekend of April 20-22.
But one of the local football analysts, Enos Chatama, admitted that it would be difficult for the new coach to build a team within few weeks.
“It will be better if he will be assisted by some local coaches or a special committee so that they help him in selecting the players,” Chatama said.
Some have argued that the government and Fam have successfully planted seeds of failure by taking long to employ the coach.
Former striker Andrew Chikhosi said it was a must that a new coach should be employed before the end of this month.
“He needs time to drill the players. A new coach always comes with a new philosophy and sometimes a new system so players need time to adapt to a different style,” he said.
Minister of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development, Henry Mussa said he was fast-tracking the process.
“We need a policy direction to be endorsed by cabinet which is headed by the President (Mutharika). It is a process but very soon we should be able conclude this matter,” he said.
In a recent interview, Fam General Secretary, Alfred Gunda, said the association was waiting for feedback from government.
“We are negotiating and we submitted our proposal. We do not want to give government a deadline on the issue but we would have loved to have the coach by the end of February,” Gunda said.
Over 60 coaches have already applied for the post which fell vacant after the association decided against renewing Ernest Mtawali’s one-year deal due to poor performance.
After Mtawali’s sacking, Fam hired Burundian Nsanzurwimo Ramadhan on temporally basis specifically for the match against Swaziland.
Another caretaker Coach, Gerald Phiri Snr was also hired for the Flames game against Chinese side, Guangzhou R& F during the opening of Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
Fam met Saturday to decide on whether or not to wait for the government’s decision.
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