Giants FCB Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Mukuru Wanderers have expressed satisfaction with the K88.2 million realised from their FDH Bank Cup round-of-16 match played at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre on Sunday.
Bullets won the match 2-1 to progress to the quarterfinals of the competition.
The amount has gone into the books as the highest ever to have come out of a match in the history of football in the country.
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Marketing and Broadcasting Manager Tulipo Mwenelupembe said they deployed various measures aimed at maximising revenue from the match.
“This is a massive figure and we are happy. It all goes down to execution of a proper marketing plan that we devised and the noise that both teams made ahead of the derby.
“We had tickets in all selling points in Blantyre and on match day. So because of the huge interest that this match created, we ran out of tickets. We also deployed tight security measures that helped to keep the money safe,” Mwenelupembe said.
Both Wanderers and Bullets also expressed satisfaction with the amount realised.
Bullets Chief Executive Officer Albert Chigoga hailed supporters of both teams for turning up at the stadium in large numbers.
“This is a record in as far as the local game is concerned. We would like to thank our supporters for patronising the match in large numbers. The biafra and other sections of the stadium were full to the rafters and the results are there for all to see,” Chigoga said.
His Wanderers counterpart Panganeni Ndovi also expressed happiness on the amount but said it could have been higher with better gate management.
“Some gate management challenges were not sorted out on time; so, this has had an effect. I am sure we would have realised more if we had sorted out a number of issues from the gates. Otherwise we commend the fans for patronising the match in such large numbers. There was a lot of interest in the match such that many fans were still queuing for entry even after we had run out of tickets,” Ndovi said.
From the amount, each of the two teams went away with K18.4 million while Fam got K14 million.
Bullets’ reward for edging Wanderers is a showdown against Civil Service United in the last eight at Kamuzu Stadium on Sunday while Baka City will play Blue Eagles on Saturday at Karonga Stadium.
The other two quarterfinal matches are between Mafco and Karonga United at Chitowe in Dwangwa, Nkhotakota District, on Saturday and Lube Masters and Moyale Barracks at Mzuzu Stadium on the same day.
The semifinals will see a clash between the winner of the Mafco and Karonga encounter taking on the victorious side between Baka City and Blue Eagles.
The other teams to clash in the last four will be the winner of the match between Lube Masters and Moyale, and Bullets and Civo.
Bullets are defending the cup after beating Mafco 3-0 during last year’s final at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
