The Football Association of Malawi has hinted that the Club Licensing Online Platform (CLOP) will be used from the 2024 season onwards.
FAM Club Licensing Manager Casper Jangale said this at the end of a two-day CLOP workshop in Lilongwe where Super League Clubs were drilled on how they can use the system to make their Club Licensing submissions.
CLOP is an electronic tool designed by CAF to oversee the licensing and Stadium inspection process for continental and domestic competition.
“The platform has a lot of things that we need to adopt, after already introducing the Mpira Connect, TMS and CMS, if we are to professionalise our game.
“As FAM, we included Business and Commercial Club Licensing criteria which looks at commercializing the game and we believe if professionalisation the commercialisation are combined, we will improve the game in Malawi so we are looking forward to start using CLOP come next season and we believe teams will abide by this, said Jangale.
In his remarks, one of the facilitators of the Workshop, Emmanuel Dasoberi, who is a CAF Instructor from Ghana, said CAF wants to standardise the club Licensing processes across Africa hence bringing in CLOP to digitalise the process.
“The world is now digital and we just have to move with it. Through CLOP, we will be able to monitor the club licensing processes for all our Member Associations as CAF and be there to offer guidance where necessary.
“We are impressed that clubs were represented by more than one person which is good because when one person leaves the club, the other one will be able to execute the duties and at least train another person. It is our hope that when we leave here, clubs will be able to use the platform very well”, said Dasoberi.
Speaking on behalf of the participants, Silver Strikers’ Pamela Chabwera said the introduction of CLOP is a welcome development saying clubs are ready to use the platform.
“We have seen that CLOP is so easy and user friendly unlike the manual club Licensing process which was so involving. We used to run with documents from where ever we are based to Blantyre but now we will be doing it while in our offices just like we have been doing with the Transfer Matching System, Mpira Connect and the Competitions Management System,” said Chabwera.
FCB Nyasa Big Bullets were the first Malawian team to use CLOP as they used it to apply for a continental License for the 2023-24 CAF Champions League and the club’s Chief Administration Officer, Albert Chigoga says the platform is interactive.
“The platform is self-explanatory and guides you as a user on what you need to do so as long as you have proper documentation to upload. When you have started the application process you need to be serious and make sure that you are uploading proper and correct information because there is no one to bargain with, you just interact with the system and submit everything as per the instructions given by the system, said Chigoga.
