Bullets insist ready for CAF
Struggling TNM Super League champions FCB Nyasa Bullets insist they are ready for the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Champions League despite their poor showing on the domestic scene.
Bullets are enduring their worst season in six years that has seen them win just three out of 12 matches.
With three games before the end of the first round, Bullets, who last year won all silverware, have slipped to position six following their eighth draw against Civil Service United at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre on Sunday.
Bullets are also third on the list of teams with least wins, alongside Bangwe All Stars and Baka FC with one win each, Chitipa United with two Mighty Wakawaka and Premier Bet Dedza Dynamos with three each.
With such an appalling performance, some analysts feel Bullets are not ready for the continental battle in which they have been paired against Zambia MTN Super League champions Red Arrows in the preliminary round first leg set between August 16 and 18.
One of the analysts Raymond Siyaya said: “The fact that FCB Nyasa Big Bullets picked all domestic trophies last season, concealed frailties and grey areas across tactics, administration, and squad depth as pivotal parameters. This dire situation is not helped by selling two key players Patrick Mwaungulu and Lanjesi Nkhoma to TP Mazembe of Democratic Republic of Congo. Mwaungulu has won games for Bullets singlehandedly and would be of great importance to Bullets.”
He said this season coach Kallisto Pasuwa’s tactics have been unmasked as seen by how the team is now struggling in the league.
Siyasiya said: “Unless these issues are sorted, Bullets must skip this for now, otherwise it will be the same case of getting booted out in the preliminary round, a fact that continues to dent our football image.”
According to CAF regulations, “a withdrawal reported after the engagement and before the establishment of the fixtures leads to the loss of the engaged club with an imposed fine of $5 000.
But Bullets acting chief executive officer Albert Chigoga in an interview said the club has no plans of pulling out from continental club competition.
“It would be very stupid to pull out from the CAF Champions League now just because we are not doing well in the TNM Super League. If we do that, we will be losing direction. We should not be making rash decisions.”
“There are more games to be played. We will pass this phase. So, what if we pull out from the CAF Champions League only for the team to pick up form? We don’t want a situation where we would regret doing that,” he said.
Bullets’ undoing has mainly been their failure to score as their strikers have been firing blanks since April when the season kicked off.
So far, only Ephraim Kondowe with three goals and Babatunde Adepoju with one goal are the only ones to score while Anthony Mfune and Hassan Kajoke have been firing blanks since the 2024 campaign started, while Maxwell Gasten Phodo has just recovered from a prolonged injury.
On Sunday, Bullets had to come from behind to rescue a point, thanks to midfielder Ernest Petro’s goal.
Bullets coach Kallisto Pasuwa admitted that things are getting out of hand and that a solution is urgently needed.
The Zimbabwean tactician said in a post-match interview: “It’s now a concern. The best result we can hope for is a draw. We need to dig deeper in order for us to come back to winning ways. We played last week and we won 5-0. We came back in the league and the best we could get is a draw.”
CAF already started the registration of players participating in the preliminary round from July 1 to 20 July.
Last year, Bullets defeated Equatorial Guinea’s FC Dragon 3-0 on aggregate but they were knocked out by TP Mazembe in the second round after losing 5-0 on aggregate.
