FAM changes academy approach

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has changed talent recruitment criteria for the national football academy as they transform the project into a national school of football excellence.

Initially, the plan was to nurture talent on non-residential basis at zonal level in each of the country’s three regions before being drafted into a national camp, but FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda yesterday said  the identified talent across the country will be directly put under one roof at Luwinga Technical Centre in Mzuzu.

He said this means the recruitment  will start afresh as the 44 players that were being drilled at Mpira Stadium after being drawn from Misesa, Kapeni, Kanjedza and Limbe primary schools in Blantyre in 2018, through grassroots football activities, are no longer required.

The introduction of a national football academy is believed to be the best solution to improving the Flames’ performance through nurturing  talent from the grassroots, but delays in its establishment appears to be a stumbling block.

“We have changed the approach on the whole set-up and the talent identification process. All the identified talent will be housed in the national school of football excellence in Luwinga as we want them to grow together as future football stars,” he said.

Gunda explained that the development means they will not continue with the current recruits as as most of them have now over-grown the project’s age requirement after the 2020/21 football break due to Covid-19.

He said: “Due to the break, we freezed the academy’s activities and could not complete some of the required processes with the young players.

“With the new setup, we will not be able retain the players as most of them have out-grown the project’s age requirement. Therefore, the talent identification process will start afresh.”

Gunda explained that some of the nurtured talent has so far been absorbed into some youth teams.

But how will the new setup allow the talent to balance their academic needs and their football development requirements when drafted into the school of excellence?

“We have arranged that all the identified players at Luwinga will also be allowed to continue their academic studies at surrounding schools,” Gunda said.

Currently, FAM is bidding for contractors, who are supposed conduct the renovations and the furnishing of Luwinga Technical Centre as they turn it into a school of football excellence under the Fifa Forward Football Development Project.

FAM initiated the academy project as a pilot project in November 2018 and was nurturing talents on non-residential basis in preparation for a full-scale project.

The youngsters had been undergoing the drilling process at the Mpira Stadium in Blantyre under Abel Mkandawire as head coach alongside Clement Kafwafwa, Sherry Msuku, Lawrence Mnenula and Cyrus Luwindo.

FAM was ready to set the ball rolling on the initiative at a national scale in April last year, but it was frozen due to Covid-19 restrictions on sporting activities.

Football analyst George Kaudza Masina said what FAM is now advocating for is the modern way of running a football academy.

He said: “It has to be appreciated that football is becoming more of a science, as such, it has to go together with knowledge and intelligence. Thus the reasoning that the identified students will be continuing with their education too.

“The 2018 identified players might not be relevant now as an academy requires a certain age group which is not the case with most of the 2018 class. If well managed, this academy and other private football academy’s are going to shape our football for the better.”