I cannot believe it. I cannot believe my eyes. Yes, I cannot believe what I am seeing. I am talking about the newly unveiled jerseys for Malawi national football teams. I mean, men’s and women’s football teams.
The Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has just unveiled jerseys I can describe as the ugliest national team jerseys in recent memory.
I mean, someone, somewhere, must have thought they were preparing the best ever thing for football lovers in this country, only to shock people like me— and, from feedback on social media and other platforms—and many others.
Come to think of it, the home, away and neutral jerseys look—at least to me—like something that has, without warning, fallen from the sky.
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It is, actually, an insult to this great nation that one of the kits is resembling the training kit for one of the Super League sides in this country. In other words, there is nothing motivating about a jersey some people regard as material not worth showcasing on match day.
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Starting from the design of the jerseys, colour combination to the sleeves –which I think are too short, gauging by the way players [models] who have donned them are looking in pictures—I would not spend one tambala on such jerseys.
Needless to say, I have two sets of the previous [replica] jerseys—which have just been phased out in favour of the ones the new Fam administration has introduced to us— and I felt proud whenever I wore any of the replica jerseys. And I feel proud whenever I wear them.
Actually, those jerseys were ‘appetising’ to people wherever I went—I mean, outside this country—because, starting from the colour combination, fabric, size, among other things, those replica jerseys made me proud, super proud, to be Malawian.
I actually gave out one replica jersey—the one where red is the dominant colour—to a British friend, who sends me pictures of the jersey whenever he wears it in town. That tells you that exceptional.
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That is what we, ordinary Malawians, want. We want quality. We want apparel that reflects who we are; not some apparel that does not invoke any emotion in us. What I am saying is that not everything there is something special about the replica jerseys we are about to bury in the red soils of memory.
Talking about super jerseys for national football teams, the 2010 one—which the Malawi National Football Team used at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations—was in black, green and red can invoke the strongest memories in us; it is only when the colours have been strategically arranged, and the quality of the canvas on which they have been put is good, that one feels an attachment to them.
What I am saying is that Fam has goofed big time, probably because of unnecessary haste. Sometimes, haste is necessary, especially when one is running out of time and options. But when one has time to consult, try out things and then make the big announcement, there is no need for haste.
In the present scenario, it seems like Fam gurus were in a hurry for nothing. Now the results are there for all to see; negative sentiment as regards their latest offering to the nation.
Surely, they have done the nation a disservice and must apologise to the good people of this country. No one can play with our national treasure, namely national football teams, and get away with it. For now, all we have are materials—I mean, replica jerseys [because that is what we, ordinary people, wear—that have the appearance of randomness.
I simply do not understand why those at Fam were in a hurry. In an ideal world, an association as well established as Fam should have been characterised by life that—as someone put it—is conventional, practical, one that reflects the collective vision of leaders and Malawians whose taxes fund the Malawi national football teams.
To the contrary, what I see are mercurial and easy-going individualistic tendencies that are affecting what some of us hold dear, namely national teams. I was told, when I found bales of sugar in a shop, that I could only buy two packets and yet the sugarcanes from which the sugar is produced is cultivated right here in the country. All I can say to unscrupulous traders who are making life difficult for Malawian consumers is: Watch out, there is Cyclone Mumba in town!
