No progress on Bullets, Wanderers stadia

Blantyre based football giants FCB Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Mukuru Wanderers will have to wait a little longer to have their own stadiums as the government has redirected a K1 billion allocation meant for the Zingwangwa and Soche projects to settle loan arrears owed to contractors.

According to Minister of Sports, Uchizi Kandawire, the funds meant for the continuation of construction works of stadiums have been used to settle outstanding debts with project contractors.

The Construction works at the two facilities were expected to resume after government allocated K800 million to the projects in the 2023-24 national budget but with only two months remaining before the financial year ends the projects show no progress.

However, Kandawire said he is optimistic that the loan payment will be completed within this budget, allowing for renegotiation of new terms with the contractors for the project’s completion.

The projects started in 2020 and were supposed to be completed by the end of last year but to date no progress has been made on the construction sites.

Last year, the clubs made a request to the government asking for the stadium projects to be handed over to them but the government rejected the request.