Member Associations have commended the Football Association of Malawi for timely release of subvention funds which enabled their smooth operations in 2021.

The Member Associations said this on Friday during a FAM MA’s Budget Consultative meeting at Cross Roads Hotel in Blantyre.

Northern Region Football Association Dr Lameck Khonje said for the first time in many years the Regional Leagues have finished their seasons without debts which he attributed to timely FAM support.

“We appreciate FAM for always consulting us as Member Associations to voice out our views before a budget is passed because we are the ones on the ground and we know what is needed in the areas that represent.

“As NRFA and on behalf of other Regional Associations, we would like to commend FAM for giving us our subvention money as well as the Covid-19 relief funds in good time because this has helped to smoothen our operations this season. For once we have finished the season without any debts like previously, we used to owe Referees and other service providers but now we settled everything”, said Khonje.

The meeting was aimed at reviewing the 2021 FAM Budget and scrutinizing the 2022 budget.

Each of the Nine Member Associations had two representatives and for the first time they were also given an opportunity to make presentations on their own financial reports for 2021 as part of transparency and accountability.

During the meeting FAM presented a budget of K3.3 billion for the period January to December 2022.

FAM Executive Committee member and vice chairman of the FAM Finance and Administration Committee Chimango Munthali said: ” We would like to thank the Member Associations for their contribution to this process. But again we would like to commend them for adopting some of the best practices in governance as they demonstrated today by presenting their own financial statements. From here we will now wait for the official approval of the budget at the AGM early next year.”