Former Malawi coach Meck Mwase - Photo Malawi FA.
Malawi’s Industrial Relations Court (IRC) has ordered the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) to pay the country’s former senior national football team coach, Meck Mwase, $254,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal.
Mwase’s lawyer David Kanyenda confirmed to Pan-African Football that IRC deputy chairperson, Edna Bodole, delivered the ruling in Blantyre on Thursday after the coach challenged FAM for unlawful contract termination, redeployment and constructive dismissal.
Kanyenda said: “This is a satisfactory outcome that heralds a positive trajectory towards attaining social justice in the football industry, particularly on the coaching landscape. For a long time, local Coaches have endured wage discrimination while expatriates received hefty pay even when the latter failed to deliver sporting results.”
The lawyer said he hoped “the FA can learn its lessons from this court case and proceed to review and create a fair wage structure for local coaches.”
The judge ordered that the former national team captain be paid his dues within 10 days in the same or similar wage scale as his successor Marino Marinica and predecessor Ronny Van Geneugden (Belgian).
Court records show that the monthly salary for the Englishman Marinica was $8,500 while the Malawian Mwase pocketed $980.
The payment is for the entire contract duration of the coach who earned the Flames' qualification to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals, only to be demoted to a deputy for then interim manager Marinica at the actual tournament in Cameroon.
After that AFCON appearance, FAM fired Mwase in April 2022 with a year remaining on his contract, citing poor performance in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers for Africa.
The former Jomo Cosmos defender was redeployed to the post of under-23 coach, a position he declined. The association ended up making the technical director Marinica the Flames coach.
Meanwhile, Mwase dumped local club Mighty Mukuru Wanderers FC, earlier this month after some indifferent results in the elite TNM Super League where they lie second to runaway leaders Silver Strikers.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Marinica's successor Patrick Mabedi is also considering suing FAM for unfair dismissal. Mabedi was dismissed last month barely a year after being hired to replace Marinica, who too got the chop.
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