Both contestants ahead of the presidential elections of the Super League of Malawi (SULOM), incumbent Tiya Somba Banda and Fleetwood Haiya, presented beautifully crafted and enticing manifestos — but as the immediate past leader Tiya alluded to “there comes a time to leave the stage [and] as it is in any race, there is always one winner”.
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He has since congratulated Fleetwood, saying: “Go and serve the clubs well”, — a gesture we should all applaud and which has already been made by so many football enthusiasts.
Councillor Wengai Kanojerera of Blantyre City Council’s Nyambadwe Ward said Tiya’s farewell message is what is supposed to be done by bonafide leadership. He thus asked Tiya to do proper handovers and take a picture with Haiya saying such an opportunity surely “will unite the football family”.
To which Francis Chabvi responded, saying he adored how Tiya has absorbed the results of the elections and appealed to him “not to let those brilliant ideas go with you — support the new team in any manner that you can”.
I totally agree. In both of their manifestos, the two focused their attention on making the SULOM secretariat to be as professional as it deserves to be.
Tiya had pledged that once given fresh mandate he was to call for an extraordinary meeting in the first 90 days of office to dissolve the positions of general secretary and treasurer to create the offices of chief executive officer (CEO) and finance manager.
He emphasized that the SULOM secretariat was to “be a decision making office guided by modern football standards and regulations”, adding that “such a corporate structure will enable clubs have more a direct contact and access to their requirements”.
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He took cognizance that in the current situation, the voted offices of the general secretary and treasurer are executive committee members who run the offices on a part time basis — which is supposed to be managed by a CEO and finance officer.
He had said the current set up weakens the corporate governance of the offices adding that the checks and balances are compromised while describing the current set up as “ineffective, inefficient and slow to respond to clubs’ needs”.
He thus said the general secretary and treasurer shall be the chair of the finance and audit committee to improve on governance.
Fleetwood Haiya
On his part, Fleetwood had pledged the same on operations of SULOM secretariat — that he shall set up a professional and effective in order to ensure smooth operations of the operations.
He said for a long time SULOM has been operating without secretariat, which was being managed by the executive committee, which shouldn’t be the case because the elected officials are Board members who are supposed to set policy direction for the secretariat to implement.
“However, for the longest period, executive committee has shouldered the responsibility of the secretariat by carrying out the day to day operational work. As a result, this has affected the ability of the executive committee to provide sound strategic direction for the development and growth of the league.”
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Recognising that a vibrant and effective secretariat is a key driver to the development of football, Fleetwood also said he shall ensure the restructuring of SULOM office shall be built on a professional and commercially viable foundation — by among others, having a CEO; financial & administration manager; and a marketing manager.
There are so many outshining ideas that Tiya promised to deliver and as the Facebook commentators alluded to, I urge Fleetwood to hold on to Tiya firmly and devise a plan how their thoughts to uplift the standards of football in this country could be amalgamated.
Most times, especially in politics, leaders tend to ignore manifestos of contestants they have defeated and I pray that Fleetwood would rise above such in the interest of football. No one should ever say he has copied what Tiya had pledged to do if it is for the good of the Beautiful Game.
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So, our new top flight football administrator — coming from the success leadership as the Board vice-president of Nyasa Big Bullets — liaise with Tiya on how he had planned to deliver in his bid for the second tenure. He has a vast experience having served as SULOM treasurer before becoming the president.
He also has good experience having served as executive member of Football Association of Malawi (FAM) which Fleetwood now inherits and can propel him to contest as the football governing body’s presidency — and why not?
Congratulations are in order and be reminded that we have kept the manifesto safely and as time goes, we will be going back to it and assess progress made.
I urge the affiliates to ask the new leader to mark his pledges in the manifesto with timeframes in order to gauge progress and/or to remind Fleetwood if he shall go off track.
Like Tiya signed off, ndi Zampira izi. Let’s unite and provide all the stakeholders — especially the VIP (in this case the player) — the best and professional league SULOM is supposed to and can develop into.
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I totally agree with my son, Tiya, that”after all it is said and done, there comes a time to leave the stage”