COVID-19: FAM sets up special relief fund as economic relief for players, team officials, referees

By Duncan Mlanjira

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has put in place a special Relief Fund as an economic relief for elite players and officials who rely on football in the wake of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This was announced by FAM president Walter Nyamilandu at Mpira Village on Tuesday, saying among those to benefit are Super League club players and team officials, Women’s Football Regional League teams and the elite referees.

Nyamilandu said FAM will offer monthly stipends to these beneficiaries of not less than the minimum wage as prescribed by Malawi Government.

He said this was decided at the emergency executive committee meeting that was held on Monday April 27 to review the FAM Task Force report on the impact of COVID-19 on Malawi football and recommended mitigation measures.

The task force comprised FAM executive committee members, Chimango Munthali as chairman; Felister Dossi; Madalisto Kuyera and FAM GS Alfred Gunda.

“The four worked tirelessly over the past three weeks engaging stakeholders on how the pandemic has affected the local football,” Nyamilandu said.

“On behalf of the football fraternity let me thank the task force for producing a thorough and comprehensive report which formed the agenda of the emergency meeting.”

He said the committee, through a two-hour session held via video-conference — the first of its kind — made a number of key decisions in light of the pandemic which has brought the game to a standstill.

The second resolution made was to increase, by 50 percent, the yearly subventions for all the affiliates which receive direct funding from FAM.

“Bearing in mind that affiliates’ principle sources of revenues have been adversely affected with the situation at hand, the committee resolved to release the funds earlier than planned and will henceforth be available from June.”

On the football calendar, that has been disrupted globally due to the pandemic, FAM says it is committed to host all football competitions as planned in the 2020 calendar once football resumes.

“However, bearing in mind that it is not yet known as to when football will resume, FAM has resolved that the season will only go ahead with some adjustments to the fixtures and allow the season to spill over to next year if the delay is within six months (April to September 2020).

“If the delay is of more than 6 months, that is October and beyond, the season will be considered to have been lost and FAM will start planning for another season which would start January 2021,” Nyamilandu said.

He added that FAM appreciates the corporate social responsibilities (CSR) on its shoulders because the game of football does not exist in a vacuum. 

“We have done well so far on CSR, since the introduction of the Charity Shield. As such we will continue taking a leading role in enforcing the COVID-19 guidance from Government within the football fraternity.

“To this effect, the Association has offered the Ministry of Health Luwinga Technical Centre premises in Mzuzu as a quarantine centre for COVID-19 during the pandemic.

“On top of that, the Association will collaborate with other partners on awareness campaign as well as resource mobilization to help in the fight against the COVID-19.”

The source of funding for these interventions will come from FIFA Special Projects fund.

“We will immediately write FIFA to request for authorization to reallocate Special Projects funding for 2020, amounting to US$400,000 to the Relief Fund and subject to FIFA approval, FAM expects to start disbursing the funds to the direct earmarked beneficiaries in June.

“The subventions for member associations will come from the Operations Fund and in total FAM is expected to spend close to K350,000,000 between June and December.

“The Relief Fund will be assessed on month to month basis by the task force to determine the extent and continuation of the support.”

As announced by FIFA last week, that the world football governing body is working on another emergency relief package for member associations, which were asked us to prepare proposals.

Nyamilandu said FAM has already submitted its proposal and in waiting “we have decided to create our own bailout plan. The FIFA package will argument the bailout package that FAM has initiated”.

On governance, Nyamilandu says FAM will put in place governance and accountability structures for implementing this relief fund.

“We will ensure that every tambala released is accounted for and that funds reach only those intended beneficiaries.

“FAM will, in collaboration with relevant authorities like clubs and associations, pay individual beneficiaries direct to their personal accounts.”

Nyamilandu then appealed to the football fraternity and the general public that “it is the responsibility for all of us to ensure that precautionary measures of preventing the pandemic are being followed.

“We have a pandemic which we are not sure when it will vanish. If we are not careful, we may end up losing our precious human capital and football structures.

“This is why we took a bold decision to forgo special projects which we can always do in future in order to save lives and indeed save the game itself.

“The pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for the entire football community and now that the virus is being transmitted locally, it is very important to try as much as possible to observe social distancing by staying at home.

“Let us continue washing hands with soap, avoid touching our faces, practice respiratory hygiene and on top of that seek medical help if you have fever or cough.

“We shall recover; we shall overcome and we shall return to the stadiums soon,” Nyamilandu concluded.