The National Football Coaches Association (NFCA) has asked Super League teams to set realistic targets for coaches ahead of the 2025 football season.
This comes at a time the majority of teams have said they expect their coaches to win at least the TNM Super League title and a cup.
Going into the 2025 football season, which is scheduled to kick off in March, FCB Nyasa Big Bullets, Silver Strikers, Mzuzu City Hammers and Chitipa United will be under new technical panel members.
Bullets hired Peter Mponda while Silver have promoted Peter Mgangira following the departure of the former, who won the league title last season.
Hammers and Chitipa are yet to announce their respective coaches.
NFCA General Secretary Davie Mpima said clubs give their coaches too much pressure.
“We had a meeting with some of our members and we told them to properly scrutinise contracts before putting pen to paper.
“We know that some clubs are fond of setting unrealistic targets for their coaches,” Mpima said.
Mpima, while hailing clubs for trusting local coaches ahead of the forthcoming season, said most teams lacked patience.
“The teams should give the coaches ample time to build winning squads.
“It is not easy to build a team that can compete for all trophies in one season,” Mpima said.
On the other hand, Mpima said some of the coaches create a difficult environment for themselves when they promise a lot of things before a season starts.
In an interview yesterday, Bullets Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Albert Chigoga, who did not disclose targets set for their coach, said Mponda was aware that the stakes were high.
“He even mentioned during his unveiling that Bullets is a winning team,” Chigoga said.
Mponda, who replaced Zimbabwean Kalisto Pasuwa, told journalists in Blantyre recently that he was eyeing a clean sweep in the forthcoming season.
“There is always too much pressure to win games at Bullets. I want to win everything,” Mponda said.
Last season, Bullets won the Airtel Top 8 Cup only.
This is despite that they won an unprecedented quadruple in 2023.
At Silver, Mgangira has been tasked to defend the TNM Super League title and win one cup. But the team’s CEO Patrick Chimimba was reluctant to disclose the targets.
Meanwhile, Mighty Wanderers have also reportedly set targets of winning the league title and one cup.
But Wanderers CEO Panganeni Ndovi said they had not set targets for coach Bob Mpinganjira.
“We are yet to come up with targets for the coach,” Ndovi said.
In a related development, Ndovi confirmed that Mpinganjira was expected to sign a one-year deal as permanent coach this week.
Mpinganjira impressed as interim coach, having won the 2024 Castel Challenge Cup following 1-0 victory over Hammers at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
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