Fam faces fresh financial hurdle
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) says the 2026 World Cup qualification format which will see African teams playing at least 10 qualification matches, poses a fresh financil hurdle.
A statement issued by Confederation of African Football (CAF) at the weekend states that the new format has been adopted in line with the tournament’s increased slots which will see nine African teams qualifying for the global showpiece from the previous five.
Reads the statement in part: “[The qualifiers] will involve all the 54 member associations of CAF who will be divided into nine groups [and] winners of each group will automatically qualify for the Fifa World Cup.
The nine groups translate to six teams each group.
It further says the four best runners-up will play in a CAF Play-Off tournament. The winner will play in the Fifa Play-off Tournament.
The qualifiers are scheduled to start in November this year.
Reacting to the format in an interview yesterday, FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said: “Faced with such an enormous task ahead, the low funding of the Flames is of great concern because we even don’t have enough funds to complete the remaining [2023] Afcon [Africa Cup of Nations] qualifiers.”
Nevertheless, he said the format gives a higher probability for African teams, and the Flames in particular, to qualify.
Nyamilandu said: “However, it will be the best of the best that will qualify because it will be the winners of each group plus the best loser that will make it.
“We have to up our game and gear up to top the group. Going to the World Cup is not cheap and not easy at all; hence, we have to invest significantly in the preparations of the Flames.”
But he was upbeat of Malawi’s chances, saying: “Depending on the group that we’ll be drawn in, we could surprise many people.
“Having reached the last 16 at the 2022 Afcon finals, we demonstrated that we are capable of causing an upset. So, we should not read too much into our poor showing against Egypt. We were caught out and exposed by a rejuvenated Pharaohs.”
In a separate interview, Minister of Youth and Sports Uchizi Mkandawire played down FAM’s fears, saying government always bails out the Flames.
He said: “Finances are always limited, but when it comes to such high-profile activities, government always comes in, even when there is no particular allocation in the budget.
“But where we usually have problems is when it comes to preparations. Our resource envelope is very small, we have so many needs and to suggest that we can fund every activity, we could be lying, but still more we try and they will be taken care of.”
Three weeks ago, FAM expressed concern with its reduced allocation of K180 million for the current financial year, saying it left them with a K804 million deficit.
Nyamilandu said it would affect participation in a number of competitions.
He said: “We contribute K120 million through FDH Bank plc sponsorship and K250 million through Fifa travel funds.
“So, our total contribution of K370 million plus government funding of K126 million is giving us a huge deficit of K804 million from a total priority budget of K1.3 billion.”
During the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, Malawi finished bottom in their four-team group with three points. The other teams were Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Mozambique.
