Prophet Shepard Bushiri on Friday donated K44 million to the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) to meet its K45 million budget shortfall for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Guinea.
The ceremony took place at FAM’s Chiwembe Technical Centre in Blantyre last Friday.
Bushiri, also known ss ‘Major 1′, said the donation was in response to Flames coach Ernest Mtawali’s request.
“I was contacted by the coach (Mtawali) that the team was in need of financial help.
“And I decided to come over here and help,” he said.
The prophet said although the request was made at short notice, “the need of coming here was huge as the president of the country encourages patriotism and as a loyal citizen who loves the country and the Flames,  I thought it wise to come and support.”
He said the primary reason is to assist towards the development of the game.
FAM general secretary Suzgo Nyirenda hailed Bushiri for what he described as “timely donation.”
“Our budget for the Guinea match was K105 million and we only had K65 million in our coffers (K50 million from Flames’ official sponsors Carlsberg Malawi and K15 million from Airtel Malawi) living us with a K40 million deficit.
” I am, therefore, at a loss of words to explain what this gesture means because we were at a tight corner having exhausted our funding from Government and with no hope of gettinh additional funding,” he said.