Football Association of Malawi says scarcity of forex delayed the first consignment of the new Flames Admiral replica jerseys.
The association’s marketing and broadcasting manager Tulipo Mwenelupembe said in an interview yesterday that they expect the first consignment of 5 000 jerseys by end of May.
“We had challenges securing forex, but the problem has now been addressed,” he said.
Mwenelupembe also admitted that due to the hitch, FAM has missed an opportunity to boost the replica jersey sales, considering the upcoming African Nations Championship final round qualifiers against South Africa .
“It is indeed a missed opportunity, but based on the circumstances, there was very little we could have done. Nevertheless, we hope to make up for that as we also have the [2026] World Cup qualifiers and the Cosafa Cup coming up,” he said.
Mwenelupembe also claimed that 30 percent of the consignment has already been pre-ordered.
Lilongwe-based businessperson Ben Chiwaya, who runs a sports apparel shop and was once a Flames replica jerseys’ sales agent, said the matches against Bafana Bafana would have boosted the sales.
“With the Flames playing this weekend [at Bingu National Stadium] in Lilongwe, surely it would have been the ideal time for sales,” he said.
Meanwhile, FAM has said while electronic (e)-ticketing for Saturday’s match will be exclusive for VIP and corporate boxes, standard tickets are being sold both electronically and manually.
“This is because some people do not have smartphones and, therefore, cannot access e-ticketing,” said Mwenelupembe.
“But we are still working on accessing USSD [unstructured supplementary service data] for ordinary phones.”
The advance standard ticket is fetching K6 000 while on match day, it will be at K8 000. An advance ticket for the VIP is at K25 000 while on match day it will cost K30 000 while a corporate box seat is selling at K35 000.
Last month, FAM announced that it had engaged Kwenda as its e-ticketing service providers for the next two years in a bid to reduce match organisation expenses.
The association said following the deal, fans would now purchase tickets online for matches under FAM using a computer, smartphone or USSD.
