Mighty Tigers have a rich history on the domestic football scene; but they face a bleak future having been operating on a shoe-string budget for over 15 years, Malawi News Sport can reveal.
To make matters worse, Tigers—a team known for its resilience as their eponymous creature of the wild—will have to wander around and about as they have lost K36 million annual sponsorship from Wakawaka after the firm indicated that it will not be able to sustain its K3 million monthly allocation for the side.
For four successive seasons, Tigers have been battling relegation, amid poor funding, raising fears that the club risks disbanding.
On average, Tigers have been collecting about 33 points each season.
In the 2024 season, Tigers finished on position 12 with 35 points and the season before, the Kau-Kau outfit ended on position 11 with 36 points.
In the 2022 season, Tigers ended on 12 with 31 points whereas in the 2021 season, the side finished on position 13 with 32 points. In 2019, Tigers finished 9th with 38 points.
The statistics clearly show that Tigers have stagnated in the relegation zone and if drastic measures are not taken the side will likely sink.
Tigers Chairperson, Sydney Chikoti said they have sounded a save our souls message to rescue the club from disbanding.
“Things are not okay. We are struggling to make ends meet. The situation is getting worse and if we do not get any support soon we might disband. Lack of stable and adequate support is affecting the club,” he said.
Chikoti confirmed that Wakawaka told them at the beginning of last season that they will not sponsor the side beyond the 2024 season.
“We are now on our own. We will try not to disband but it is difficult to survive when you rely on well-wishers. If we had steady support, it would have been a different case,” he said.
On his part, Tigers Technical Director, Robin Alufandika said the club holds the spine of Malawi’s football having been supplying players to the senior national football and local elite teams.
“All the highly fancied big teams have been poaching from us since time immemorial. We owe players their February dues and it is our plea that well-wishers should come to our rescue,” Alufandika said.
Abambo, as Alufandika is famously known, might seem to be overstating the eminence of the club but it is indeed true that the side has been supplying players to the national team.
Former international players like goalkeeper Clement Mkwalula, defence pillar Felix Nyirongo, master of body movement the late Jonathan Billie, the late Popote Chang’ono, Sosten Zakazaka and Chunsen Chipeta, mesmerised fans during their heydays.
In recent times, Tigers produced the likes of Stanley Sanudi, Isaac Kaliati, Ernest Kakhobwe, Innocent Nyasulu and William Thole.
Tigers’ best finish recently in the league was in 2015 when they finished sixth with 42 points, the same tally of points they collected in the 2024 season when they ended on position eight.
Tigers won the Super League once and that was during the 1988/89 season. The side last won a major cup in 2009 when they lifted the Standard Bank Fam Cup after beating Civil Service United 7-6 on post-match penalties after a goalless stalemate.
Formerly known as Admarc Tigers, the Kau-kau outfit were the first Malawian side to reach the final of Cecafa Inter-club Cup and they lost to AFC Leopards of Kenya in 1983.
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