Malawi National Football Team’s botched 2025 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) campaign has cost Football Association of Malawi (FAM) over K1.3 billion, The Nation has established.
The Flames have so far played four Group L Afcon qualifiers, twice at home and twice away and two are remaining.
They lost their first match to Burundi’s Swallows 2-3 at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe in September before going down 3-1 to Burkina Faso’s Stallions in Bamako, Mali.
Malawi then lost back-to-back to Senegal’s Teranga Lions 4-0 in Dakar and 0-1 at Bingu National Stadium. They anchor the group without a point.
Leaders Burkina Faso and second-placed Senegal, who are tied on 10 points, but are separated on goal difference, have already qualified for the continental tournament to be hosted by Morocco. Burundi are third with three points.
A set of the away and home qualifiers which were played within eight days, cost the association about K400 million each translating to K1.2 billion for three sets of matches .
The Flames are remaining with two qualifiers, away to Burundi in Senegal next week Thursday and at home against Burkina Faso on November 18 which will also cost around the same budget.
According to expenditure reports which we have seen, these Flames’ engagements have squeezed the association hard financially.
Not only that, the association has also spent K98 685 842.94 on coach Patrick Mabedi in the year about to end, in salary, allowances and other benefits.
In contrast, the association spent K244 227 130.00 on the women’s senior national football team’s participation at Cosafa Cup in South Africa where the team was knocked out in the semi-finals.
FAM also had to send the Under-20 national football team to Cosafa Cup in Mozambique by road to cut expenses which hit K187 467 810.00.
The beach soccer national team which qualified for the CAF Beach Soccer Afcon had a budget of K557 527 000.00.
Meanwhile, FAM is expected to spend another K187 467 810 on women’s Under-17 national team participation in Cosafa Under-17 Championship to be held in Mozambique next month.
Just like the under-20 boys’ team and the schools under-15 national team, the girls will likely go by road to Maputo to cut expenses.
FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda admitted in an interview that the association has been squeezed as the qualifiers had to be played within three months unlike in the past when they were stretched in six or more months.
He said the association had to ensure the Flames are prioritised.
Said Gunda: “That’s why in any organisation your need assessment becomes significant.
“We had to look at which programmes we can prioritise and obviously, the Flames come first.”
He said at the same time, FAM had to ensure developmental programmes such as the women’s national teams.
“These women’s programmes are also key in our development strategy as well as part of fulfilling Fifa Forward programme requirements.”
With government funding not enough for all programmes, Gunda said the association had to divert some funds meant for operations to the national teams’ programmes.
He said: “We had to use operational funds from Fifa because we had no choice. I mean, at the end of the day, we can’t close shop.”
FAM submitted a budget of K1.6 billion to Malawi National Council of Sports for the 2024 financial year, but only got K400 million.
Football analyst Charles Nyirenda in an interview said government is abdicating its duty of funding national teams.
He said: “I mean, what can K400 million do for a budget of K1.6 billion? Obviously that’s just for a single qualifier. The truth is that FAM is trying its best, but government is not doing enough.
“Actually, FAM is just being polite. Otherwise, they could have pulled out of most of these competitions.”
Malawi National Council of Sports spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said they fund what FAM presents to them based on availability of funds.
Apart from Fifa and government funding, FAM also gets K680 million from CAF and K250 million from sponsors FDH Bank.
