Gerald Phiri not head coach

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has clarified that Gerald Phiri, who was unveiled as head coach of the Flames last week, will not be in charge of the team.
FAM president Walter Nyamilandu yesterday said the association’s general secretary (GS) Alfred Gunda erred by unveiling Phiri as head coach and that, instead, it will be an expatriate coach who is expected in the country on either Thursday or Friday.

“It was an oversight on the part of the GS. The correct version is that Gerald is the first assistant coach while [Deklerk] Msakakuona is the second assistant coach. That is the arrangement as per their contracts,” he said.

The FAM boss also said they are on the verge of sealing the prospective expatriate coach’s deal.
“By the time he arrives, we should have finalised everything. He will get down to work straight away; he will not return to his base,” he said.
“He will start drilling the team in preparation for the [2018 Championship of African Nations] Chan qualifiers against Madagascar.”
However, Nyamilandu kept the identity of the prospective expatriate coach under wraps, saying he will be known within the week.

“We wouldn’t want it to come as a surprise, so we will reveal his identity in due course and we are working on a long-term deal.”
He also dismissed reports that the identified expatriate coach is Carlos Antonio.
“Several names have been mentioned, but it is definitely not Antonio.”

But on his part, Gunda said Phiri’s unveiling was by design as the prospect of having an expatriate was still uncertain.
“The issue of an expatriate was still vague and we needed to play it safe as there were a lot of questions,” Gunda said. “But now we have made some progress and we should have something concrete within the week.”

Phiri and Msakakuona were unveiled on Wednesday as head coach and assistant coach, respectively.
On the issue of the expatriate, Gunda told the press conference that it was still on-going but that Phiri would be in charge for a year.
“The nomenclature of the position will change at the time we hire an expatriate coach, but as of now we have competitions that we have entered and we cannot just let the team be without a coach to lead it,” he said.

FAM recently said an unnamed partner will fund the coach’s perks as the assistant coaches will be paid by government.
The Flames were expected to go into camp yesterday to start preparations for the Madagascar game.