As the FDH Bank Premiership second round prepares to resume on October 10,2026, the proposed introduction of electronic ticketing gives Malawi football another opportunity to confront one of its long running match-day challenges, how to make every ticket sold and every kwacha collected at the gate more accountable.
Super League Of Malawi (SULOM) president Gilbert Mitawa told MaraviPost Sports Desk that the league is exploring a pilot e-ticketing arrangement with FDH Bank( sponsor) and another company, with selected matches expected to be used to test how the system performs before a wider rollout.
The timing could hardly be more important. SULOM says the first round generated K1.083 billion from 120 matches, an increase of just 1.74 percent from K1.064 billion generated from the same number of matches last season.
But the headline figure of K1.083 billion tells only half the story. Despite the increase in gross gate revenue, the amount available for sharing fell by 6.06 percent, from K850.48 million to K798.92 million. At the same time, match-day expenses jumped by 32.73 percent, from K214.08 million to K284.13 million.
That is the number football stakeholders should be looking at. Malawi’s top-flight football collected more money at the gates, yet clubs collectively received K440.38 million, down from K469.14 million during the corresponding period last season a 6.13 percent decline.
The figures therefore raise an important question for the second round,can better ticketing and gate management help clubs retain more value from the supporters they attract? E-ticketing alone cannot answer that question, but it can potentially provide a more traceable record of tickets purchased and used.
The revenue figures also show why clubs have a financial interest in getting the system right. Mighty Wanderers generated K93.73 million in first-round gate revenue, followed by FCB Nyasa Big Bullets on K88.20 million, Silver Strikers on K39.39 million and Ekhaya FC on K23.85 million.
These numbers demonstrate the scale of money moving through stadium gates. Even a small improvement in ticket control, verification and reporting can therefore have financial significance when multiplied across 120 league matches.
The e-ticket debate, however, is not new. In 2025, the Competition and Fair Trading Commission directed SULOM and TNM to operate e-ticketing alongside physical tickets for six months and subsequently open the system to other payment providers to ensure interoperability. The commission also ordered awareness campaigns for clubs, supporters and gate managers.
That history is important because successful digital ticketing is not simply about putting a Quick Response (QR) code or electronic ticket on a supporter’s phone. The system must work for supporters in different parts of Malawi, accommodate different payment options and remain functional where connectivity can be a challenge.
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has already experimented with e-ticketing through its partnership with Kwenda. The association said its platform could accept Airtel Money, Mpamba, Visa and MasterCard, showing that multiple-payment integration is possible within Malawi’s football environment.
This is where the proposed SULOM pilot becomes particularly interesting. Starting with selected matches, as Mitawa says, could allow the league to measure actual performance rather than making assumptions. How many supporters buy electronically? How many tickets are successfully verified? How much revenue is collected? How much does the system cost to operate? And does it reduce disputes around gate collections?
Those are the statistics that should eventually determine whether e-ticketing becomes a permanent feature of the Premiership.
Football journalist Ishmael Sulaimana has also welcomed the conversation around e-ticketing, while some stakeholders who spoke to MaraviPost Sports Desk believe the country’s biggest clubs should take an active role in supporting the system because protecting gate revenue is directly linked to their financial sustainability.
For Weekend Sports Mirror, the bigger issue is therefore not whether Malawi football should simply become “digital”. The real question is whether technology can help turn the K1.083 billion first-round gate economy into a more transparent and commercially sustainable system.
October 10 will provide the first major checkpoint. The second round should not only tell us which clubs are competing for points, it should also begin answering whether Malawi football is ready to modernise the way it sells, records and accounts for the tickets that keep the league running.
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