Malawi FA applauds advance ticket selling system
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has said that the advance ticket selling system worked wonders as MK19.1 million was sold before the final of the Airtel Top 8 between Mighty Be Forward Wanderers and Silver Strikers at Bingu National Stadium (BNS) in Lilongwe.
Fam also applauds professional management of cash done by FDH Bank and the use of e-ticketing through Airtel Money helped to control money leakages through fraud and manipulations.
“The bank alone sold over MK34 million while over MK4.7 million was sold through Airtel Money,” says Fam’s Commercial & Marketing Director Limbani Matola.
“We are extremely delighted to report that we have managed to collect a record gross of MK52.5 million at the Airtel Top 8 final.
“The teams and BNS each went away with MK10.5 million. And Fam’s share is MK8.4 million whilst Malawi National Council of Sports got MK2.1 million.
“From our perspective we had a cocktail of critical success factors which included, proper planning, aggressive marketing and promotion of the match through TV, radio, newspaper and social media, strong security and gate management system
“We also brought in entirely new security company, Droid Security System, which enhanced security both at the gates and VIP sections. We applaud the teams for accepting to adopt advance match day ticket sales system despite some heavy protests and resistance we received from within themselves,” he said.
He also added that Fam got it right on pricing as the minimum value for open covered stands was pegged at MK1,500 for advance ticket and MK2,000 on match day whilst the minimum for corporate box seat ticket was above MK7,500 and over MK10,000 on match day.
“It is also important to remind ourselves that the introduction of Fam tamper evident security holograms has indeed been a very rewarding investment. We can now afford to expose the match day tickets longer on the market without fear of counterfeits. Those who try to forge the tickets are being apprehended.
“Of course, this success wasn’t without challenges but it is important at this stage to highlight that the gains far outweigh the shortfalls. So maybe for now we can humbly pat ourselves at the back as we reflect on how best to better our performance going forward.
“We would want to take some moment to pay tribute to all stakeholders who worked tremendously to make this success possible; the police, stewards, FDH bank, Droid Security System and our esteemed sponsors Airtel.
“The event was well organised and highly patronised. Our football fans should be praised for coming in their large number. It was a pleasant sight to see a lot of women and children peacefully enjoying the match. In fact, there were also many top government officials which included the line Minister Hon. Henry Mussa and the Speaker of Malawi Parliament and other top business gurus not to mention foreign dignitaries like the Japanese Ambassador.
“It was simply an amazing experience which lived to its billing of ‘celebrating football excellence’. There were no acts of violence and hooliganism. It is well when it ends well!
“We continue to learn and dare to bring in value adding changes to our beautiful game of football. We can only hope that this trend will be sustained,” Matola said.
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