All set for women’s football tournament
The inaugural National Women’s Football Championship rolls into action on March 19 following a draw conducted on Wednesday at Mpira Village in Chiwembe Township, Blantyre.
National Women’s Football Association (NWFA) general secretary Lina Mtegha said the K32 million competition will act as a pilot project for the National Women’s Football League, which is in the pipeline.
“The competition will be played between March 19 and April 24 this year,” she said.
The inaugural championship comprises top three teams from each of the three 2021 FAM regional women’s football leagues.
The South will be represented by champions Blantyre Zero (now Nyasa Big Bullets Women’s side), runners-up Ntopwa Super Queens and third-placed Bangwe Super Queens while the Centre will have winners DD Sunshine, second-placed Ascent FC and third-placed Skippers FC.
The North will have champions CY Sisters, runners-up Moyale Sisters and third-placed Topik Queens.
Mtegha said the competition will be played in two phases. The first phase will see the nine teams being divided into two groups of four and five to play on round-robin.
“Thereafter, the top two teams from each group will make it into the semi-finals from which the winners will proceed to the final and the losers to the third-place playoff,” she said.
On Wednesday, the draw saw Moyale, Skippers, Blantyre Zero and Ntopwa being slotted into Group A while CY Sisters, DD Sunshine, Bangwe, Topik and Ascent were drawn into Group B.
“Following this draw, we will come up with the fixtures. Teams in one group will play their round-robin games during a weekend at a given venue,” Mtegha said.
Each of the nine teams is expected to receive a K1 million subvention during the group stages. Those that will make the semi-finals will get an additional K1 million each.
Eventual champions will get K3 million, runners-up K1.5 million and the third-placed team will receive K750 000. The fourth-positioned team will receive K500 000. Top goal-scorer, best player and best coach of the tournament will each get K100 000.
While describing the draw as fair, some of the teams said they had reservations on the prizes and the subvention, arguing they are not good enough.
“Recently, we had regional league games with the champions receiving K2 million. Now, why should the champions in a national event get only K3 million?” Ntopwa owner Isaac Jomo Osman wondered.
Bangwe coach Thom Kazembe agreed with Osman on the financial package, adding that even the K1 million subvention is also not enough to keep them afloat “in a competition that will require travelling, accommodation and food for not less than 20 players per team”.
