Football Association of Malawi (FAM) President Walter Nyamilandu says time has come for Malawi’s football key stakeholders to start talking about building commercial value and making big money from the Super League and football in general.
Nyamilandu made the remarks during the official opening of a two-day Business Symposium organised by the Super League of Malawi to interact with clubs, broadcasters and sponsors on football commercialization ahead of the 2020 Football season.
He said the key football stakeholders in the country have spent a lot of energy and resources on developing the game but have not effectively talked about making serious money out of it.
“We have spoken and done a lot on infrastructure, youth development, technical capacity building and it is now time to talk about real Money.
“We have resources that can help us make money through football but they are untapped because we don’t know more about the football rights. Alot of Money is sitting on radio and TV broadcasting rights in Malawi that we are not maximizing because our focus is always on gate revenue.
“This workshop should open our eyes and make us think outside the box on how to grow revenue from the game .The Super League should lead in building a new model on how we can find and maintain sponsorship and make sure that the sponsors benefit through their support ,” he said.
In his remarks, SULOM President Tiya Somba Banda hailed FAM for financially supporting the workshop which will help the League create more sources of revenue for its teams.
“Our teams are struggling financially and we can’t keep on relying on gate takings. We need this knowledge on how to tap new markets and sources of incomes . We need the clubs to have steady sponsorships and other sources of revenue,” said Banda.
Stuart Masela, Sponsorship Director for EXP Africa from South Africa, is facilitating the workshop which will among other things focus on Global Football Sponsorship Trends, Unpacking Broadcasting Rights, The rights Proposal Process and Title Sponsor Rights Packaging
