Silver Strikers Company board on Saturday held a meet ing wi th the club’s leaders from zonal supporters committees to iron out some misunderstandings.

At the meeting in Lilongwe, the zonal leaders questioned the rationale of the board recruiting players without first employing

 a coach. Northern Region Zonal leader Joshua Chinguwo described the meeting as fruitful.

He said: “We were given a platform to raise issues we feel should be resolved. We questioned the board on players recruitment exercise without a new coach. We thought it would have made sense to appoint a coach first so that he can have a say on the players he wants. But we were told that for continuity sake, the current technical panel and the board were tasked to recruit players.”

Chinguwo said another outstanding issue was the proposal by the board to do away with the national supporters committee and instead empower zonal leaders to elect a national coordinator who will be the liaison officer between the board and supporters.

“On this proposal, my take was to go back and consult the supporters. But I am of the opinion that the responsibility is too much for a single person, as such, it is important to have a national committee,” said Chinguwo.

Silver Strikers fans support their team in a previous match

The board’s vice-chairperson George Chiusiwa, who presided over the meeting with company secretary Peter Masiye, said they wanted to update the zonal leaders on a number of issues after the dissolution of the elected national supporters committee.

He said: “Principal among the issues under discussion was mapping the way forward on how the football club will be working with the leadership of the supporters to effectively ensure that the leadership genuinely represents the interests of fellow supporters while championing and promoting the professionalisation and commercialisation agenda of the club.”

Chiusiwa justified the new model, which he said aims at ensuring that the leadership of supporters is responsive, transparent and accountable to all supporters of the club through the zones.

“It is envisaged that this reformed institutional arrangement in engaging supporters will effectively support the club’s commercialisation drive as the zonal supporters’ structures will be actively engaged in a relatively redefined role of supporters at the football club,” he said.

On recruiting players without employing a coach, he said the club has conducted a technical review and evaluation of the team’s performance in the “not-so-good and undesirable 2022 football season.”

He said this is not the first time the club is doing this normal football practice in assessing the performance of the playing staff.

Southern Region zonal leader Isaac Ndindo said they welcomed the proposal of having a national coordinator elected by the zonal leaders.

He said: “As supporters, we have the responsibility to the club to support the policies of the board. Issues of violence are damaging to the commercialisation process. It was wrong for supporters to control the former chief executive officer Thoko Chimbali and lock his office. We should not overstep our role. The board has a separate role, just as the technical team supporters.” n

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