Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has registered all Super League players and officials on the Mpira Connect Platform, a Fifa Connect System replica.
Among other benefits, the programme aims at promoting a fact-based management of football development and ensure sanity in player transfers.
Previously, FAM struggled to enforce the initiative and targeted to register all Super League players and officials by the end of the the 2019 season.
FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka, who is managing the Mpira Connect Platform, attributed the success to change in strategy.
“We have in the past two years struggled to get the programme rolling. So, from 2019 we devised a plan that we should concentrate on Super League teams then move to women, regional and youth leagues,” he said.
Zakazaka stated that through the programme they have managed to produce identity cards for players and officials.
“By July 2019 all Super League teams had done the needful and got the ID cards which they are using for identification. From next season, they will just be renewing their old registration,” he said.
Zakazaka disclosed that FAM will now extend the online registration to the lower league and women football.
“Our target is that by 2021 all football stakeholders should be under the Mpira Connect,” he pointed out.
CentralRegion Football League vice general secretary Antonio Manda welcomed the initiative.
“Our league is most of times embroiled in transfer chaos with several clubs sometimes claiming ownership of one player. With an online database, all these issues will be addressed,” he said.
