We need Nyamilandu to represent Africa in FIFA Anglophone General Council

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu refused to bow down to the pressure of recent weeks coming from a section of the general public that threatened to march demanding his resignation and that of coach Ronny Van de Geneughden (RVG) on the basis of the national team’s poor performance.

Nyamilandu alleges that the motives for the march were not necessarily about Flames’ performance in Morocco where they lost 0-3 in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations qualifier but were being championed  for football political reasons which ultimately sought to seek a leadership change or a coup at FAM.

He told a press conference last week that all is not lost in as far as the AFCON campaign is concerned because the Flames have played two games in which they won one and lost the other.  The Flames have three points just like Morocco and just a point behind the leaders Cameroon.

He said RVG was engaged because the moment the 2019 AFCON draw was made FAM executive knew the big challenge that was ahead when the Flames were paired against the defending champions Cameroon and Morocco.

The FAM executive made a decision to hire a qualified professional coach to help build a strong team and they settled for RVG, who was given a two-year contract with the main mandate to take the Flames to the AFCON 2019. So he has not yet failed the target he was given.

On his part, he said it is illegal and unconstitutional and it would have set a very bad precedent in the governance of football to force his exit, which tantamounted to a coup and that he should be allowed to finish his constitutional mandate to lead the association until December 2019.

And I agree with him when he says his mandate is not all about the Malawi national team performance, “but a holistic 360 degrees approach in football development at all levels” and he proudly underlined some of the tremendous strides in other critical areas of football development.

Nyamilandu continued to say with regard to the 2019 candidature, he already made a stand some time back that he has no intentions of standing again and shall make it clear once more at the forthcoming general assembly in December 2018.

He sais his motive is to leave a lasting legacy in Malawi football and he has 15 months left in office and such this is very critical for him to work on issues that will correct the future of Malawi football.

One such legacy is that Nyamilandu has ambitions to contest for the African Anglophone position on the FIFA General Council which fell vacant after the resignation of Ghana Football Association president, Kwesi Nyantakyi.

COSAFA has nominated three candidates vying for that post; South African FA president Danny Jordan, Seychelles FA president, Elvis Chetty and Nyamilandu. The election for the open position on the FIFA General Council will take place on September 30.

If we don’t really want Nyamilandu, perhaps let us wait for him to finish out his term in the next 15 months in which by then he would have settled very well in the FIFA General Council.

Those who have ambitions to take over when Nyamilandu is gone do have 15 months to start presenting their manifestoes on how they are going to do better than him rather than taking the short cut of a coup.

They should be rest assured that Nyamilandu shall be allowed to continue as remain as a FIFA Councillor even when he shall relinquish his post of FAM president. I believe the people wanting this position that badly thought  that if Nyamilandu was elected in the FIFA Council it means he has to cling on to his presidency.

That’s not the case. He will gracefully go out of office to serve Malawi and the African continent better in another capacity. Those who shall take over his seat in FAM shall have an added advantage that they shall be talking football development business with one of their own.

The FIFA Council (formerly the FIFA Executive Committee) is an institution of the world football governing body whose mandate is to make main decisions of the organization in the intervals of the FIFA Congress. The council is a non-executive, supervisory and strategic body that sets the vision for FIFA and global football.

Meanwhile,  Nyamilandu has made some strides in football development together with his FAM executive committee members such as James Mwenda, Daudi Mthanthiko, Daudi Suleman and the others.  These are the right people to take over from him because they shall continue to speak the same language. Not the outsiders who wanted to bulldoze their way into FAM.

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