1 day Ago By Mabvuto Kambuwe
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has kept a tight lid on Malawi National Football Team’s participation in the 2025 TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers scheduled for next month. A Confederation of African Football (Caf) executive committee meeting held on Monday confirmed the dates for the qualifiers and finals of the tournament, which is for local players only. According to the Caf statement, the first round of the qualifiers will be played on the weekend of October 25-27 whereas the finals are scheduled for between February 1 and 28 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda next year.
However, Fam General Secretary Alfred Gunda said he was consulting on the way forward. “I will come back to you later,’’ Gunda said in a brief response yesterday. On his part, Fam Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka said they are waiting for official communication from Caf.
The association is already in a fix as government is yet to provide funds for participation in a number of tournaments including the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers and the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Fam should brace for tough times in October as five national football teams are expected to take part in different competitions. The senior Flames will face Senegal in back-to-back fixtures between October 7 and 15 while the beach soccer team will participate in the Afcon finals in Egypt from October 19 to 26.
On top of that, the Scorchers are expected to participate in the 2024 Cosafa Women’s Championship from October 22 to November 2 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The Under-20 national football is currently in camp preparing for the Caf/Cosafa qualifiers from September 26 to October 5 in Maputo, Mozambique. The Flames have never qualified for the Chan finals.
In 2022, Malawi exited in the last round of the qualifiers on away goal-rule after 1-1 stalemate on aggregate against Mozambique. However, they progressed to the last round without kicking the ball after Zimbabwe were on Fifa ban then..
