FAM spoils beach soccer players
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has spoiled beach soccer national team players with special bonuses of K500 000 each following Malawi’s qualification to the Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations (BSAfcon) finals.
Malawi booted out Tanzania on away goal rule after winning the first leg 3-2 in Salima and losing 6-5 away on Sunday to tie 8-8.
FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said the players, who get K150 000 each for a win, deserve to be spoiled after the historic qualification.
He said: “The executive committee has agreed to reward each player and technical official with a special bonus of K500 000.
“This means that their bonus has been more than tripled from the normal game bonus of K150 000.”
Nyamilandu said the special bonus will help to motivate the players ahead of the tournament.
He said: “It is our culture to recognise excellent performance by incentivising and rewarding our players fairly so that they are highly motivated to excel.”
The final tournament will be held in Mozambique in October and
Malawi, the only debutant at the tournament, will join Egypt, Senegal, Madagascar, defending champions Senegal, Uganda, Morocco and the hosts.
Beach Soccer Association chairperson Gift Chimbalanga said Malawi is capable of causing an upset at the finals, if they prepare well for the tournament.
He said: “You see, some people were doubting us when we said we were going to qualify for the finals.
“But here we are on our way to the finals after our first attempt in the history of Malawi beach soccer.
“We believe we can go to Mozambique and win the cup. We just have to prepare well for the competition.”
Nyamilandu said the association wants to use the 2022 Cosafa Beach Soccer tournament to prepare for BSAfcon.
He said: “We have an opportunity to participate in Cosafa Beach Soccer Cosafa tournament, but we are not certain of participation due to lack of funds.
“It would be timely and appropriate to use the tournament for preparations. We sacrificed the little resources we had by spending K100 million towards the BSAfcon qualifiers and we are dry at the moment.”
“We will see how best to proceed as the focus shifts to ensuring that we attend the BSAfcon tournament without fail.”
