Malawi boss fumes at treatment of ‘small’ nations at AFCON

‘We had to do our won laundry, while big teams got preferential treatment’
Malawi manager, Mario Marinica, has criticised the Africa Cup of Nations bosses as he claims that his team ‘have had to wash their own pants’.

The Romanian – who is also the technical director – was in interim charge of the Flames as they competed at AFCON in Cameroun.

The 57-year-old has since revealed that his team needed to do their own laundry at the tournament, while ‘bigger’ nations got preferential treatment.

He said: “You wouldn’t see Sadio Mane washing his own underpants and hanging them on a bush to dry.

“Gambia have the same problem, and there are different standards here, teams are being treated differently.

“We talk about inclusion, we want to have minnows, small teams doing fantastic things, but when it comes to the latter stages, people don’t fancy us playing against Cape Verde and not Senegal playing Morocco.

“Certain questions have to be asked; why are these things happening to us, why only to the smaller teams, why only to Comoros, Gambia, us?”

Malawi incredibly reached the Round of 16 in Cameroun after beating Zimbabwe before grabbing an important 0-0 draw with Sadio Mane’s Senegal.

However, their journey came to a conclusion on Tuesday as they suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat to Morocco.

Despite enjoying an impressive tournament, Marinica continued to condemn the treatment of ‘smaller nations’ and insisted that he hopes things can change.

“I’ve asked my fellow colleagues and team leaders to lodge a formal complaint,” the Malawi boss added.

“I complained to the managers of the estate, and at the current [hotel] we struggled for three days before things were sorted out.

“I couldn’t have milk for coffee, they said the milk was finished until tomorrow.

“We are treated like second-class citizens, but if you’re a hotel manager and you see this happening, you take charge, you can’t allow it in this day and age, at this level of competition.”