Football Association of Malawi has issued another statement on the protracted wrangle with its affiliates on whether the outgoing executive was supposed to vote or not at the forthcoming polls.

Fam said it will be the prerogative of the general assembly to decide on the issues which were recommended by Fifa and asked the press not to twist facts.

The local soccer governing body further contends that the Annual General Meeting of Fam is the legislative body which is empowered by the constitution to make laws and bye-laws affecting football in the country.

The statement released by Fam after the wrangle with its affiliates was different from the earlier one which said the 2009 Constitution will be used at the forthcoming AGM because the current one has not yet been approved by Fifa. This is where the bone of contention started.

The other problem was that the executive unilaterally decided that the old constitution should apply without consulting the AGM. This even complicated the issue further.

However, the statement fell short of explaining why Fam has been taking long in working on the draft statutes despite that Fifa recommended these changes three years ago.

It is absolutely counterproductive to blame the press for any attempt to deliberately twist facts on this issue.

It was Fam executive which had a hidden agenda. The press simply did its job by exposing what was agreed by the executive at its recent meeting in Blantyre.

Affiliates could have been taken unawares on this development at the forthcoming AGM thereby creating chaos.

The press release quoted Fifa as saying that they asked for a new draft of the Fam statutes for their approval before presenting it to the general assembly or get in touch with them by proposing a meeting.

Recommendations were debated at length at the constitutional conference in Salima which was represented by all the affiliates.

The million dollar question is, why did Fam call for the Nkhata Bay general assembly before sending the draft statutes to Fifa, since the constitutional conference was represented by all the affiliates?

Somehow Fam executive has not been open and transparent in their conduct and this brings confusion and speculation.

Let Fam executive agree that it lacks transparency in its conduct, no wonder it has perpetual problems with the press.

Make no mistake: the Malawian press cannot continue to be seen as meek. We are not fools, illiterate or imbeciles that we cannot interpret issues and read situations. No one should play on our intelligence. We have brain cells to think.