MNCS bans Phiri, Chitembeya indefinitely

Two long serving athletics administrators have been banned indefinitely from managing the sport, as their differences with the Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) rage on.

It all started last September when the country’s supreme governing body for sports dissolved the Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM’s) executive committee over its failure to fulfill several constitutional requirements.

Among others reasons, the Council faulted the AAM executive for failing to finalise a constitutional amendment exercise, as well as to hold elections between November 2021 and September 2022.

According to the council’s publicist, Edgar Ntulumbwa, the two banned officials are Godfrey Phiri and Frank Chitembeya who used to be AAM president and general secretary respectively.

“We are convinced that they are not respecting rules and regulations of the MNCS so, as a sports regulatory body, we felt it necessary to impose the ban on them. We have also written the world, continental and regional athletic governing bodies to desist from dealing with them (Phiri and Chitembeya) because they are no longer executive members of the local association.” Ntulumbwa emphasized.

Reacting to the development, Frank Chitembeya, insists that the council has no mandate to ban them.

He said; “I and Phiri are intact. The council does not have mandate to ban us. I am here and I will be there because MNCS is not an affiliate”.