Football Association of Malawi has directed Super League of Malawi, Southern, Northern and Central football associations
to amend their regulations to give room for the National First Division (NFD) to take off.
Football Association of Malawi competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the association has instructed the regional leagues and Sulom to amend their regulations by the end of the season.
He said: “FAM executive committee approved the NFD league and its format and it’s now officially the second tier League. All affected league will have to amend their regulations ahead of the 2025 season.
“The impact is not much for the Super League this season as we will continue with what we started. Regional league champions will be promoted to the Super League.”
Meanwhile, FAM has also restructured the regional leagues to have a harmonised format for uniformity and all the three regional leagues will now have 16 teams while Division One will have 20 teams.
The three leagues will be played in a round robin format with the team that accumulates more points being crowned champions.
Zakazaka said regional leagues have to embrace the changes which are aimed at narrowing the gap between the TNM Super League and the second tier league.
He said: “Because there was big gap between the Premier Division leagues and the Super League. We need a league that could give these teams coming from the regional leagues an atmosphere of what it means to play at national level.”
“It’s going to be 16 teams across board at Premier Division, 20 teams for Division One in 2025, but they also revealed to 16 teams in 2026.”
FAM will also introduce district leagues restricted to under-21 players with the champions getting promoted to the Division One.
Said Zakazaka: “The critical areas are that the regional leagues understand what this National First Division is all about, how it’s going to be implemented. Because with the introduction of this second tier league, a lot of things are going to change on how the regional Premier Division as well as Division One leagues are going to be structured. he establishment of the new second tier National First Division is taking shape with the debut season set for 2025, Nation on Sunday has learnt.
At least 12 teams are expected to participate in the first season of the league, according to Football Association of Malawi (FAM) competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka.
Southern Region ThumbsUp League, Northern Region Simso League and Central Region Chipiku Stores League will each contribute three teams that will finish from position two to four to join three relegated teams from the TNM Super League.
This means regional champions will not be affected by the creation of the new league as they will still be promoted to the top flight TNM Super League.
“We are talking about how many teams are going to participate, how many teams are going to come from this Central Region, the Southern Region, the Northern Region.
What happens with those coming from the Super League?”
He said harmonisation of the regional leagues is crucial for the sake of uniformity.
Said Zakazaka: “We wanted to harmonise the regional leagues because we are looking at the disparities that were there as far as the running of these regional leagues are concerned.
“Southern Region they were doing their own things, Central Region their own format and teams, number of teams, just like Northern Region.
“We need to harmonise this so that it’s the same effort applying to all the teams, all the three regions. So that’s why I say, okay, first of all, let’s have a national league that will also make sure that our football is competitive.”
Central Region Football Association general secretary Antonio Manda said the restructuring of the leagues is a milestone in football development.
He said: “This is a welcome development. We will give FAM full support in the implementation of these changes.”
Football analyst Charles Nyirenda commended FAM for bottom-to-the-top reformation of the leagues.
He said: “If you look at the way promoted teams perform in the TNM Super League you will appreciate FAM’s concerns
