Another test for Bingu stadium

Ministry of Youth and Sports says it is confident that Bingu National Stadium (BNS) will pass the test to host the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier between the Flames and Egypt next March.

This follows Football Association of Malawi’s (FAM) announcement that Confederation of African Football (CAF) is scheduled to inspect the facility next month.

The 40 000 capacity giant stadium was given a temporary approval by CAF to host international matches earlier this year.

FAM facilities manager Casper Jangale said in an interview yesterday that they have sent the Ministry of Youth and Sports reminders on the upcoming inspection.

He said: “We expect the inspection to be conducted between mid and end January and to avoid being caught off-guard, we have been sending reminders to the ministry.”

Jangale said the key outstanding areas that needed to be worked on after being granted temporary clearance were the pitch, benches for team substitutes and match officials, tunnel from the dressing rooms and sanitary facilities, especially toilets.

“They also stated that the stadium must be equipped with modern electronic access controls and turnstiles with automatic counting apparatus,” he said.

But the ministry’s director of sports Jameson Ndalama and BNS manager Ambirike Mwaungulu said in separate interviews yesterday that they are optimistic the facility will make the grade.

Said Ndalama: “Most of the issues that were raised have been worked on.

“The only remaining crucial area is probably the pitch where we are giving grass time to grow. Otherwise there are no major issues.”

On his part, Mwaungulu said: “What remains is continuous maintenance of the pitch to make it greener and repairing a few benches, which is not much.

“As for the sanitary areas, especially the toilets, we’ll do routine clean-ups and replace taps that were either vandalised or stolen and putting up protective tools.”

Recent pictures taken during the Airtel Top 8 final between Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Mukuru Wanderers show that the toilets have been heavily vandalised.

“The only major outstanding work is installation of turnstiles which require a lot of money and Malawi National Council of Sports or the ministry would be better-placed to tackle that,” said Mwaungulu.

CAF gave BNS temporary approval to host international matches in May this year following an inspection conducted by Ivan Lengwe from Zambia, which led to the facility hosting the Flames’ 2023 Afcon qualifier against Ethiopia in June.

Ethiopia also hosted Egypt’s Pharaohs at the same venue days later after their national stadium was declared unfit to host international matches .

CAF banned BNS from hosting international matches last year, a development that led to the Flames playing their 2022 World Cup home qualifiers in Johannesburg, South Africa.