* The existing contract between Dedza Dynamos and Promise Kamwendo is still running and must return to the club immediately
* Dedza Dynamos ordered to refund K3 million and K4 million it received from Bullets and Wanderers respectively
* Kamwendo has been ordered to refund K6 million paid to him by Wanderers as signing on fee
By Duncan Mlanjira
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has ruled in favour of Nyasa Big Bullets to declare as invalid the transfer of Promise Kamwendo of Dedza Dynamos FC to Mighty Wanderers FC Limited.
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The ruling thus declares that existing contract between Dedza Dynamos and Promise Kamwendo is still running and must return to the club immediately.
Further, Dedza Dynamos is ordered to refund the K3 million and K4 million it received from Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers respectively within 14 clear days.
Nyasa Big Bullets is also condemned to a fine amounting to K3 million payable within 14 clear days of the ruling while the player, Kamwendo has been ordered to refund K6 million paid to him by Wanderers.
Wanderers is also ordered to pay a fine of K4 million — the same must be refunded within 14 clear days of the ruling.
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Issued yesterday, September 8, 2024, the player status committee, headed by Daud Mtanthiko with counsel Khumbizeni Dossi, counsel Kolezi Phiri and Davis Sado as members, said any party that is dissatisfied with the decision has the right of appeal to the FAM appeals committee within 3 days of the notification of the decision and upon payment of K800,000 — but the “appeal itself does not stay the enforcement of [the] determination”.
Nyasa Big Bullets filed the petition to declare the transfer as invalid, justifying that Bullets followed the right procedure by engaging Dedza Dynamos before engaging the player himself.
The team maintained that Promise Kamwendo was a bona fide employee of Nyasa Big Bullets, thus the petition to declare the contract between Wanderers and Kamwendo invalid.
Bullets also argued that the conduct of all Dedza Dynamos, the player’s manager, Hastings Chilunga, Wanderers and the player himself bordered on “theft, fraud, deceit and dishonesty” and that the same should be condemned by FAM.
The Bullets also made a declaration that Promise Kamwendo should not play any competitive football matches for any team in Malawi until the issues related the matter were resolved by FAM.
The committee took note that Promise Kamwendo had attracted interest of some Super League teams including Nyasa Big Bullets, Mighty Wanderers and other clubs attempting to secure his services during the August 2024 transfer window.
Bullets indicated that it reached an agreement with Dedza Dynamos to sign Kamwendo at a signing fee of K3 million, which was paid and they also had sent money to the player’s manager, Chilunga to cover trave costs for the player to travel to Blantyre from his home in Mchinji finalise the agreement.
But the player never showed up, only for the Bullets to learn that the he had signed a contract with Wanderers.
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The player status committee is a statutory creature established as a standing committee by article 47 (1) (b) of the FAM Statutes as read with article 24(j) of the FAM RSTP.
The player status committee is clothed with mandate, which is not being contested, to monitor compliance with the FAM RSTP and to determine the status of players for various FAM competitions.
Under Article 55 of the FAM Statutes, FAM has jurisdiction on internal national disputes i.e. disputes between parties belonging to FAM. FIFA on the other hand, has jurisdiction on international disputes i.e. disputes between parties belonging to different Associations and/or Confederations.
It follows that the player status committee has jurisdiction to determine the present dispute as it involves parties domiciled in Malawi. The three clubs (Mighty Wanders, Dedza Dynamos and Nyasa Big Bullets) at the heart of the dispute are affiliated to the Super League of Malawi (SULOM) — a member of FAM under Article 12 of the FAM Statutes.
The committee emphasised that player transfers in the country are guided by FAM RSTP January 2024 Edition that a team intending to buy a player must approach both the current team and the player and should either be in writing or a notification to the current team.
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In case of written request, the current team must reply in writing within 14 days of receipt of the request. The mode of approach by the team is determined by the status of the player’s contract.
The need to submit written request only applies in cases where a professional player is involved and for a professional player with less than six months left on his current contract, the team intending to buy him shall notify the current team.
These approaches must culminate into two contracts — the first contract agreement shall be between the recruiting team and the current team while another contract agreement is between the recruiting team and the player. The contract agreement must always be entered into in this order and not otherwise.
The committee noted that Kamwendo is a professional and he has a running contract until December 31, 2024 with Dedza Dynamos, which at the time of the saga, his contract with Dedza Dynamos had less than 6 months left.
This, notes the committee, entails that the manner of approach by the teams intending to enter into a contract with the player was a notification or a written request.
Applying the aforementioned rules to the facts before the committee, Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers ought to have notified Dedza Dynamos of their desire to engage the player and it was noted that both Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers F demonstrated compliance to this requirement. In the committee’s view, this was not contentious.
The committee further took note that Bullets initiated the process with Dedza Dynamos by a letter dated July 30, 2024 and a day later, on the Dedza replied and made an offer of K15 million for the player, which Bullets counter offered to K3 million on August 1, 2024.
It was also noted that the engagements between the two teams were partly done through Chilunga and on August 3, Bullets sent an e-mail notifying the current Dedza Dynamos that they had deposited the agreed amount of K3 million.
The same email also alleges to have attached to it an agreement made in accordance with their previous negotiations and was submitted for Dedza Dynamos to sign and revert.
There is a formal acceptance of the terms by Dedza Dynamos written on August 2 which was signed off by the club’s CEO and an e-mail with the letter of formal acceptance attached was sent on August 3 at 14:41hrs.
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Meanwhile, Wanderers initiated the process by a letter dated the July 29, 2024 and again an offer of K15 million was sent by Dedza Dynamos to which a counter offer of K4 million was made on August 4.
An email dated August 3 from Nyasa Big Bullets advised Wanderers that they could not continue negotiating because they had already entered an agreement for the services of the player but Wanderers brought evidence of a duly signed contract with the player dated August 3 and a subsequent payment of the transfer fee of K4 million was made to Dedza Dynamos on August 5.
From the facts, the committee contend that it is safe to conclude that the team said to have entered an agreement with Dedza Dynamos is Bullets.
“Sight must not be lost that several teams had made inquiry about the player,” says the ruling. “Two of the teams had escalated the inquiry into serious negotiations which culminated into a formal acceptance being secured by the [Bullets] and a rejection for [Wanderers].
“The dates for these responses from the [Bullets] make sense. The acceptance was dated the 2nd day of August, 2024 while the rejection of further negotiation was dated 3rd day of August, 2024.
“As much as the [Bullets] entered into an agreement with [Dedza Dynamos], they did not arrive at any agreement with the player himself — as such, they were one step short of the requirements as stipulated in the FAM RSTP (2024 edition) specifically in Article 25(4).”
However, Wanderers alleged that there was no contract between Bullets and Dedza Dynamos at the time when they agreed the terms with the player and the committee notes that this was “a complete suppression of facts meant to mislead it.
“In as far as fulfilling the initial stages as between the teams is concerned, we have no doubt in our minds that the agreement between the [Bullets] and [Dedza Dynamos] was the first in time.
“On the other hand, [Wanderers] did, in actual fact, present evidence of a contract between them and the player which was executed on the 3rd day of August 2024 but failed to produce evidence of an agreement with [Dedza Dynamos] entered into prior to the agreement with the player as is required by Article 25(4) of the FAM RSTP (January 2024 edition).
“On the same day, 3rd day of August 2024, they had made a counter offer to [Dedza Dynamos] of K4 million. This counter offer was surprisingly made a day after an email was sent from [Dedza Dynamos] to [Wanderers] informing them of an agreement having been arrived at with another team.
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“It is therefore safe to say that in terms of procedure as laid out in Article 25(4) of the FAM RSTP (January 2024 edition), [Wanderers] was also one step short of the procedure in that they did not have an agreement with [Dedza Dynamos] which is supposed to be the first step. [Wanderers] only had a contract with the player.
“Following from the foregoing, it is our ruling that procedurally neither [Bullets] nor [Wanderers] completed the procedure as laid down in Article 25(4) of the FAM RSTP (January 2024 edition) and it therefore follows that there was no transfer of the player and therefore neither [Bullets] nor [Wanderers] have good title to the player.
“It is our ruling, therefore, that the player still remains with [Dedza Dynamos] under his current contract which is to expire on 31st December 2024. [Bullets, Wanderers] and any other clubs are at liberty to engage [Dedza Dynamos] for the transfer of the player in the next transfer window.”
In determining Precious Kamwendo’s status in relation to Bullets and Wanderers, the committee says the indecisiveness demonstrated by Bullets “can be directly identified as the primary cause of the conflict” between the two teams.
“It is particularly perplexing that [Dedza Dynamos] accepted payment from [Bullets], only to provide banking details to [Wanderers] two days later and subsequently accept a payment from them for the same player — a situation for which they had already received compensation. “This behavior confounds the committee and is absolutely a conduct that should not be tolerated. Such conduct has brought the integrity of football into serious disrepute.
“In that regard, it is our ruling that [Dedza Dynamos] must refund the money paid by [Bullets] and [Wanderers] in regard to the player. Furthermore, we rule that [Bullets] pays the sum of K3,000,000 as a fine for bringing the game of football into serious disrepute and as a deterrent to any other club for any similar conduct that is likely to cause confusion regarding the transfer of a player.”
Since there was no transfer as per procedures, Kamwendo is to refund the K6 million he received as signing on fee from Wanderers.
On Hastings Chilunga’s involvement in the matter, the committee takes note that Wanderers denied dealing with him whereas Bullets acknowledged having dealt with him.
However, all parties, including Chilunga himself admitted that he is not an agent, which “resonates well with the prevailing FIFA rules which require that an agent must be licensed by FIFA”.
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“His involvement may also not have been as a result of acting as both representative or manager. For him to act as such he needed to have a contract duly signed with the player to that effect.
“The same was not adduced in evidence during the hearing. Even when parties were requested to furnish the committee with additional information this piece of evidence was not made available.
“It is safe to conclude that going by the regulations, we do not recognize the involvement of [Chilunga]. If indeed [he] wishes to become an agent or manager, he must do all that is required for him to be registered as such.”
On Wanderers, the committee takes note of “serious violation”, saying they were “fully aware of the regulations governing player transfers and contracts, knowingly entered into a contract with the [player] despite the absence of an agreement with [Dedza Dynamos].
“This action represents a blatant and egregious breach of the rules, which are designed to maintain order and prevent such conflicts. [Wanderers’] disregard for these regulations is both alarming and unacceptable.
“Actions of this nature, akin to those of [Dedza Dynamos], tarnish the integrity of the game of football. Consequently, in response to this serious infraction, the committee imposes a fine of K4 million on [Wanderers].”
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