The Flames go into the pot alongside five other countries in Confederation of African Football (CAF) 2024 TotalEnergies African Nations Championship draw to be held in Cairo, Egypt today.
Malawi, Algeria, Comoros, Egypt, Gabon, The Gambia and South Africa, the seven teams that did not enter the competition, were reengaged after the finals draw.
In a statement yesterday, CAF revealed the draw procedure, which states that Algeria, the highest ranked team among the seven, will be seeded from the first round.
The statement reads: “The qualifiers will take place in two rounds played by knock-out system in home and away matches.
“Six teams will play the first round to qualify three teams to the second round. The highest team will be exempted according to the ranking of the last three editions. Algeria, the top ranked team, will be exempted from the first round.”
During the draw, one pot will be on stage with the six following teams: Comoros, Egypt, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi and South Africa
In the first round, the first team to be drawn will play the second team while the third team will play the fourth team. Likewise, the fifth team will play the sixth team. The team drawn first will play the first match at home.
In second round, the winner of the match one and two will play against the winner of matches three and four. The winner of match between team five and six, will play against Algeria.
The first round first legs will be played on between February 28 and March 2 while the return legs will be between March 7 and 9.
The second round first leg is set for May 2 and4 while the return legs will be between May 9 and 11.
The two winners from second round of the play-offs will fill the two slots in Group C, alongside Uganda, Niger and Guinea.
Meanwhile, FAM yesterday unveiled coach Kallisto Pasuwa whose first assignment will be the play-offs.
FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka in an interview said the coach and the technical subcommittee will announce the squad for the play-offs this weekend.
In his reaction, Football analyst George Chiusiwa in an interview said FAM should have stuck to its decision not to participate in the competition for local players only.
He said: “FAM ought to have been technically and soundly organised on issues of timely recruitment of the national team gaffer to make sure that the Flames were realistically ready for the Chan showdowns.
“This is in view of the fact that we cannot easily identify, select and assemble a formidable side for the competition owing to Malawi’s long absence in taking part in the Chan football affairs.”
The Chan competition normally attracts 16 teams, but with three countries hosting the event, the number has shot to 17 and CAF decided to make it a 19-team tournament.
Group A has Kenya, Morocco, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia while Group B has Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Central African Republic. Senegal, Congo, Sudan and Nigeria are in Group D.
Malawi has never qualified for the Chan tournament which was introduced in 2007 to promote local players.
