Malawi’s flagship giant football cup sponsors, leading home-grown financial institution, FDH Bank has staked up higher the sponsorship package for the FDH Bank Cup from K120 million to K150 million.
FDH Bank Plc senior marketing manager Ronald Chimchere made the pronouncement during the unveiling and awards ceremony at Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre.
Chimchere said the FDH Bank have raised that the K30 million increase in a bid to make the competition more competitive.
Said Chimchere: “As a bank, what we want is to see the competition unearthing more football talents and we believe an improved package can help to facilitate this process.”
“This is also a direct response to the dynamics of the country’s economy.”
Chimchere said details of the prizes will be revealed during the draw for the 2024 edition in the next few days.
Chimchere said the bank is committed to football development in Malawi hence revising the package at the start of each season in the last three seasons.
“As we are committed to developing football in Malawi, and this will be the fourth season that we will be sponsoring the FDH Bank Cup.
Chimchere explained that initially, the signed agreement was for a five-year contract and that FDH would want to fulfil the promise.
“If you may also recall, the first season was at MK90 million, and looking at the economic environment, we saw it wise to push the amount to K120 million before this new package of K150 million,” Chimchere informed.
Chimchere further expressed joy at how the 2023 season unfolded.
“The main highlight for the 2023 season was FCB Nyasa Big Bullets becoming the first team to defend the title.But also when you look at other aspects, it was quite an exciting season where we have seen a quite number of players coming up and one of them is the Discovery of the Tournament from Santhe Admarc.
“It was quite exciting for us because as a bank sponsoring this cup, what we want is to unearth talent at all levels so we are happy with what has happened so far and we are looking forward to the new season,” he said.
Football Association of Malawi executive member and competitions committee chairperson Felister Dossi said the association appreciates FDH Bank’s contribution to the uplifting of football standards in the country.
“With the changes in the economy, it is encouraging to see the bank considering sponsorship increase. We are grateful to FDH Bank plc for reviewing the package,” she said.
Dossi further said that the new package is in line with FAM’s vision of commercialising the game so that the sponsors should also gain value from football.
“As FAM, this is one of the pillars that we are driving at as we need to give value to the sponsors.
She added: “There is an issue of devaluation and when you look at the money that was pumped into football years back, you cannot compare the value now so I think as one way of commercialising the game, we said if the money is increased, we could see a lot of competition, a lot of fans coming to patronise the games and bilud numbers fo value,” she added.
FDH Bank’s cup package increment comes hot on wheels at at a time when mobile network providers, TNM plc also increased its TNM Super League sponsorship from K150 million to K500 million.
Furthermore, Castel Malawi also upped the Castel Challenge Cup package from K320 million to K400 million.
Defending champions FCB Nyasa Bullets chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda applauded FDH Bank for increasing the cup package and welcomed the increase, saying it will help teams to up their game.
Nyirenda said: “This is good news in as far as improving football standards in the country is concerned.”
The sponsorship unveiling ceremony was conducted alongside presentation of players and media awards for the 2023 edition.
The Awards
Nyasa Bullets lethal striker Patrick Mwaungulu was named Player of the Tournament, while his teammate Hassan Kajoke bagged home the golden boot with four goals.
Mighty Mukuru Wanderers goalkeeper William Thole was named the best goalkeeper whereas Santhe Admarc midfielder Zahaya Maitano won the new discovery Award.
On the other hand, in media awards, the best print journalist accolade went to Nation Publications Limited (NPL) journalist Bobby Kabango.
Mibawa Television’s journalist, Hankey Chimtengo, Richard Tiyesi of Timveni Radio, Andrew Chilapondwa of Malawi 24 and Chifundo Zingunde of Aluso Media emerged the best in television, radio, online and photo-journalism, in that particular order.
For community radio stations journalists, the awards went to Byson Moses of Living Waters Church Radio in the Southern Region, Isaac Grant of Bembeke Radio in the Central Region and Victor Musongole of Radio Tigawane in the Northern Region.
Bullets won the cup for the second season in a row after beating Mafco 3-0 in the 2023 final.
Silver Strikers won the inaugural championship after beating Ekwendeni Hammers in the 2021 edition final.
“As a bank, what we want is to see the competition unearthing more football talents.”
Ronald Chimchere
FDH Bank Plc senior marketing manager
