Flames secure friendly against Kazakhstan
The Flames have secured an international friendly match against Kazakhstan on Wednesday, but Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has said that they may not make it due to flight complications.
FAM general secretary Suzgo Nyirenda yesterday said the Kazakhstan FA offered to host the Flames following negotiations they had on the sidelines of the Fifa Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, recently.
“We held discussions with a number of Europen associations who showed interest to host the Flames and Kazakhstan became the first to make a concrete offer. Unfortunately the confirmation has been made late and the [air] routes that are available show that we can only reach there on Wednesday, the scheduled [Fifa] day of the match.
“We are trying to see if we can review the arrangement, but the chances are very slim and we could end up agreeing on another date,” said the FAM GS.
Kazakhstan split from the Soviet Union national football team after independence in 1991 and joined the Asian Football Confederation’s Central Asian Football Federation. After failing to qualify for the 1998 and 2002 Fifa World Cup they joined Uefa, but are yet to qualify for World Cup and Uefa European Championship.
They were in the same group with eventual champions Germany in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and are ranked 134 on Fifa/Coca Cola World Rankings—39 places below the Flames.
