National Sports

Hope for diaspora players

There is a glimmer of hope for players of Malawian descent based in the diaspora who desire to play for the Flames after the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services resumed dual citizenship processing.

The Department of Immigration and Ci t i z ens h i p Se r v i c e s suspended processing of dual citizenship a year ago due to what they described as technical issues.

Kalua in action for Eastern Suburbs FC |

The suspension was a big blow for Football Association of Malawi (FAM) in its bid to have players of Malawian descent acquire Malawian citizenship in order to play for the Flames.

There are over 30 players in the diaspora with Malawian origins who qualify to play for the Malawi National Football Team, according to FAM.

The players are based in England, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Hungar y, Belgium, Sweden, Finland and even Japan.

Some of the players are Rayan Hamed Hamidou, who plays for Al-Ahli Saudi FC in Saudi Arabia, Kelvin Kalua of Eastern Suburbs in New Zealand, Finland-based brothers Albert Msambya (FC Espoo) and Amisi Msambya (unattached), Brian Schiavone (Cospicua Dynamos , Malta), Jamie Lee Micallef (Qormi FC, Malta), Yewo Nyirenda (unattached), Henri Kumwenda (Butler Bulldogs, United Kingdom), Shaquil le Gwengwe, (Dorchester FC, United Kingdom) and Kieran Ngwenya (Dunfermline Athletic,Scotland).

Ngwenya played for Malawi in 2021 after FAM faciliated the processing of his dual citizenship before the services were suspended.

However, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services national spokesperson Wel l ington Chiponde in an interview confirmed they had now resumed processing of dual citizenship.

He said: “We are providing citizenship services in full throttle, and all processes have been streamlined to meet the demand surge for citizenship services.”

Chiponde, however, said not everyone qualifies to have dual citizenship.

“In terms of eligibility on dual citizenship, the law is very clear that only Malawians by birth or by decent are eligible to acquire the Malawi dual citizenship status,” said Chiponde.

Under Section 6(1) of the Malawi Citizenship (Amendment) Act, CAP 15:01 of the Laws of Malawi, eligible Malawians to acquire dual citizenship are only Malawians by birth or descent.

Malawians who obtained their citizenship through naturalisation, or registration, or conferment are not eligible for Malawi dual citizenship.

FAM last year engaged the Ministry of Youth and Sports to help them facilitate the dual citizenship of some players in diaspora with Malawian roots in an effort to beef up the Flames ahead of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda said the development is a relief for the association.

He said: “We already made our presentation to Ministry of Youth and Sports on our intentions. We wanted them to help us in the process of acquiring dual citizenship. Now that this is the case, we look forward to the ministry guiding us on the same.”

Parliament passed the Malawi Citizenship Amendment Bill to amend the 1966 Citizenship Act, allowing persons of full age and capacity to hold citizenship of another country in addition to their Malawi citizenship.

Ministry of Youth and Sports spokesperson MacMillan Mwale confirmed FAM meeting them over the dual citizenship of players.

He said following the lifting of the suspension, they will engage the stakeholders.

Said Mwale: “The ministry will follow up the matter since there have been new developments after the submission,” he said.

The President assented the dual citizenship bill in March 2019 and dual citizenship regulations were gazetted in November 2021.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services kick-started the operationalisation of the Dual Citizenship Law on January 18 2022.

This means the players in the diaspora can now retain their Malawian citizenship which they lost when they acquired other countries’ citizenship.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button