Super League of Malawi (Sulom) executive committee’s term officially expires in two weeks, ending an era in which the Tiya Somba-Banda-led team fulfilled a number of 2019 manifesto promises as well as failed in some crucial areas.

In the manifesto titled Leading Football Business, Somba-Banda, who was ushered in unopposed, promised to focus on creating and harnessing a conducive operating environment for the commercialisation of clubs.

Somba-Banda: We laid down foundations

An accountant by profession, he promised in his blueprint to ensure the graduation of the league from amateur to professional by building the financial capacity of clubs.

The manifesto promised to achieve this by maximising match day revenues for clubs and improving gate management through advanced and e-ticketing systems.

Somba-Banda also promised to strengthen the relationship with FAM and its other affiliates to have a unified football agenda.

The former Escom United treasurer, who took the reins from Innocent Bottoman, further promised to solve the media and broadcasting riddle which is regarded as one of the sources of revenue that has not been exploited.

With funds expected to come in from such initiatives, the Sulom boss pledged to establish an annual CAF participation package for the league champions.

To ensure corporate governance, Somba-Banda, who had served as Sulom treasurer for two terms, pledged to carry out some constitutional reforms to ensure accountability and governance.

Four years later, he says it has been a term of ups and downs.

Somba-Banda said Sulom improved gate revenue controls through the use of advanced ticket sales which saw revenue improving each passing season.

“We should bear in mind that people’s habits changed after Covid-19. People shunned congregating in large numbers. But despite this, our revenue for 2022 surpassed 2019 and 2020 without increasing the gate charges,” he said.

However, clubs still feel betrayed as the revenue does not trickle down to them after sweating on the ground.

Civil Service United general secretary Ronald Chiwaula said clubs are poorer than they were four years ago.

He said Sulom failed to fulfil the promise on gate-revenue sharing, establishing an annual CAF participation package for the league champions and ensuring that clubs benefit from the media and broadcasting rights.

But Somba-Banda said they tried to engage stakeholders for a change in gate-revenue sharing system where teams get 25 percent each, stadium owners get 25 percent, FAM and Sulom get 10 percent each while Malawi National Council of Sports gets five percent.

He said: “We submitted a proposal to Sports Council and FAM on how revenue should be shared. We are yet to get a response.”

Four years later, no stadia has e-ticketing system despite promises from both government and private stadium owners.

The Sulom boss explained that it was difficult to implement because they do not own stadia and the recently announced gate payment through Mpamba debit card was the solution since it will not require installing e-ticketing infrastructure.

On improving the relationship with FAM, Somba-Banda, who is also FAM technical subcommittee chairperson, said Sulom benefitted more from the cordial relationship with the mother body.

He said: “Sulom cannot work in isolation. We need to work with the mother body. Look at how much we have benefited through working with FAM. Sulom was the biggest beneficiary of Covid-19 Relief Fund.

“FAM has also started giving Sulom K100 million grant which we will use to disburse to clubs and improve the secretariat.”

Somba-Banda said his executive had, with FAm assistance, revolutionised the media and broadcasting rights packaging.

He said: “It’s also the same with the media and broadcasting rights. We have managed a record K123 million just because we partnered with FAM’s Mpira TV.

All this is because we have a good relationship with FAM. Asking Sulom not to work with FAM is like asking FAM to stop working with CAF or Fifa. It does not make sense.”

But clubs feel betrayed since the lion’s share from media rights revenue goes to the content producer Mibawa Studios and broadcasters Zuku.

From K123 million, K61 million went to host producer and broadcaster, leaving FAM, Sulom and clubs to share the remaining K62 million.

But Karonga United general secretary Ramsy Simwaka said broadcasting rights from Mpira TV is not anachievement.

He said: “When Sulom mentions that as an achievement it’s like a joke. Imagine, we only got K1.5 million from the broadcasting rights. And for us to get that money we had to sweat.

“Elsewhere, clubs get broadcasting rights revenue capable of running their teams for half of the season. The K1.5 million we got is just for one game in Mzuzu. So, where is the success in such a deal?”

But Somba-Banda said it is standard practice across the world where clubs share profits and not the revenue.

Sulom has also failed to provide a package to TNM Super League champions’ participation in CAF Champions League.

On this, Somba-Banda said the Covid-19 affected their plans.

He said: “We had a shift in priorities in 2020-21 due to Covid-19. We had to shift our focus to ensure that the game survives from the Covid-19 pandemic.”

But Somba-Banda said they clinched deals with multiple partners such as Farmers Organisation Limited for Man-of-the-Match, Nico Life Insurance Company limited for Sapota Funeral Cover f for fans as well as convincing TNM to cede shirt rights to clubs to enter into deals with shirt sponsors.

However, he admitted that the executive faced challenges in implementing some reforms that would see Sulom having a fully-fledged secretariat with with a CEO and an accountant.

Somba-Banda said the executive takes responsibility for the failure to implement this.

He said: “After the 2019 AGM, we formed a sub-committee tasked with looking at the reforms. But unfortunately, the committee failed us.

“As a result, it was difficult to employ a chief executive officer since it would have been against our constitution which designates the elected general secretary as the CEO.

“On this, I should say it was mainly due to divisions in our executive committee. Some executive committee members put their interests first and not those of Sulom.”

But despite the challenges, Somba-Banda said his executive has fulfilled most of the promises he made amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: “Football was almost dead due to Covid-19 between 2020 and 2021, we shouldn’t forget. We had to put measures and efforts to make sure that football continued. This is the leadership resilience that our football needs.

minute the trip is cancelled.”

In an interview yesterday, national basketball team captain Madalitso Kadiwa described the development as a big setback.

He said: “We were all excited with the return to action of the national team and then, all-of-a-sudden, we are told we cannot participate in the tournament due to lack of resources.

“It is demotivating and disappointing.”

Nevertheless, Basmal has thanked players and the technical team for showing “dedication and utmost professionalism while they were in camp”.

The association also thanked its partners, namely Sports Council, Kips Restaurant and Ice Cream Parlour, National Bank of Malawi plc, Ecobank, Nyasa Manufacturing Company and Kamuzu University of Health Sciences for their support. The national team has been in camp for two weeks in preparation for the qualifiers.

The post Mixed bag for outgoing Sulom ex-co first appeared on The Nation Online.

The post Mixed bag for outgoing Sulom ex-co appeared first on The Nation Online.