By: Lloyd M’bwana
The country’s sole and mighty school football Surestream Academy has been shut down immediately following its parent Surestream Petroleum Company Limited failed to sure oil exploration bid on Lake Malawi.
The closure comes amid a petition Malawians of good-will launched on the ‘stop oil drilling’ aimed at soliciting signatures against oil exploration on Lake Malawi.
So, far as of February 23, 2016, about 1,839 individuals have signed in support of the campaign which is targeting about 2,000 signers which will be a true testimony that Malawians don’t want their lake to be exploited as it’s a World Heritage Site, famous for thousands of unique fish species found nowhere else on earth and also is the source of 90% of the fresh water as is slated for oil drilling within the next nine months.
In a press statement released on Monday, February 22 available to The Maravi Post, the Academy’s Managing Director Keith Robinson disclosed that the four year romance on developing grassroots football came to an end over its parent company failed to secure oil exploration bid on Lake Malawi.
Apart from closing down the football Academy that was based in the commercial city of Blantyre, the company has also shut down shops.
“The two main reasons for this decision are that the company is no longer the operator of the License for oil exploration for any oil exploration blocks in Malawi and this coupled with the ever-decreasing prices of oil on the world markets has led the company to the unavoidable decision to close the academy.
“Surestream Petroleum would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to all our supporters over the last four years, in particular the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) for their unwavering support over the lifetime of the academy.
“Therefore, we will hand over Surestream Stadium which is based at Chilomoni Township to FAM. It’s now unarguably one of the best small stadiums in Malawi, the company having invested well in excess of US$250,000 in its restoration and upkeep. The company feels honoured to have been the custodian of the facility for so long. We sincerely hope it will be maintained in its current condition to the exclusive benefit of Malawi football”, concludes the Surestream parting ways statement.
The academy’s closure has not gone down well with Malawi football governing body President Walter Nyamilandu who didn’t mince his words saying the development was likely to bring consequences on developing soccer on grassroots but assured maintenance of the stadium’s standards.
Echoing on the same, Sports Analysist Enerst Chatama called on FAM and Academy’s managers to prepare the kids who were on the site psychologically for being damped at unexpected time in a bid to contain their abilities and talent in football.
Within the two years of its operation, academy’s products including goalkeeper Brighton Munthali, Midfielders Enerst Tambe and Levison Maganizo- earned national team call ups while Issac Mwale, Trevor Kalema and Mark Fodya were part of the Malawi’s Under-20 National team which qualified for the final round of the 2015 CAF Youth Championship qualifiers.
