Football Association of Malawi (*FAM) says it has started the 2026/27 CAF Champions League club licensing process with Mighty Wanderers having received participation confirmation from the club.
FAM club licensing and competitions manager Clement Kafwafwa said in an interview on Thursday that the Nomads will now be required to complete an annual compliance evaluation on the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Club Licensing Online Platform (CLOP).
“The process requires the club to satisfy mandatory criteria across five pillars to receive a continental license. And these are sporting, infrastructure, administrative and personnel, legal and financial,” he said.
Kafwafwa said so far, Wanderers is the only men’s team that has confirmed participation in a CAF tournament.
The Nomads will participate in the tournament by virtue of being the reigning flagship league champions.
He said: “As for the CAF Confederation Cup, we extended the offer to FCB Nyasa Big Bullets, but they have officially communicated that they will not take part in the tournament.
“So, we have extended the offer further to Silver Strikers, but they have not responded.”
Bullets qualified for the CAF Confederation Cup slot, having won last season’s edition of the Castel Challenge Cup which is the biggest national cup followed by the FDH Bank Cup, which was won by Silver Strikers.
Bullets acting chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Chigoga confirmed in an interview that they have officially comminucated to FAM about their position.
“We would like to focus on domestic competitions. So, yes, I can confirm that we are not taking part,” he said.
But Silver CEO Patrick Chimimba said they did not respond to the offer to take part in CAF Confederation Cup “because it was a verbal approach through the CLOP”.
He said they will wait for an official approach.
In the 2025/26 edition of the CAF Champions League, Silver Strikers were the flag carriers, having won the 2024 top-flight title and were botted out on the second preliminary round by Tanzanian outfit Young Africans 2-1 on aggregate.
They won the first leg 1-0 at home before going down 2-0 in the return fixture in Dar es-Salaam.
On the other hand, the Nomads took part in the Confederation Cup after winning the 2024 Castel Challenge Cup.
In the CAF tournament, they were booted out in the first round via post-match penalties after tying one-all with Botswana side Jwaneng Galaxy.
This was after the Nomads had won the first leg 1-0 at home before going down by the same margin in the return leg in Francistown.
