Presidential Initiative for Sports at crossroads
Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) will call for a stakeholders’ indaba to decide on the future of government-sponsored Presidential Initiative for Sports (PIS), whose objective is not being met.
The Council’s executive secretary, George Jana, said he was unhappy that most sports associations were not organising PIS events in line with the government objective of unearthing talent.
“Government came up with the competition to develop sports in the country. But the game cannot develop if we ignore the grassroots. Most sports associations are not giving a chance to those at the grassroots to show their talent,’’ noted Jana.
He said associations were informed on the need to give exposure to smaller teams, but most of the organisers were yet to comply.
“So we are asking ourselves if at all the competition is achieving the intended objectives. Stakeholders must answer this question for themselves. Otherwise, we aren’t getting anywhere with this competition,’’ he stated.
Jana disclosed that the meeting would also address concerns by several associations that asked for a bigger sponsorship cut to team events as opposed to individual sports disciplines.
Other than football and netball that cart home the lion’s share of the initiative, the rest of the associations get K1 million each for their sporting disciplines.
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) chief executive officer, Suzgo Nyirenda, said the association will meet next month to finalise the organisation of the initiative in football.
Council recently reminded Fam on the need to exclude big teams from the tournament.
Last year, PIS football tournament did not take place after the Council said Fam had exhausted its allocation on national team engagements.
Netball Association of Malawi (Nam) general secretary, Carol Bapu, said while they appreciated the need to exclude big teams from the competition, lack of adequate sponsorship forces them to retain the big teams.
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