Reserve sides barred from national tourneys

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) says starting this season, reserve sides will no longer be allowed to take part in national competitions where their senior teams are taking part.

The association’s competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka said in an interview yesterday that  the resolution was made during FAM executive committee meeting held at the weekend.

He said: “The reserve teams can participate in such competitions  only up to preliminary round level, but cannot go into the national draw.

“This will start with the 2023 edition of the FDH Bank Cup. It’s about preserving the integrity of the competition by ensuring that teams that fall under one ownership should not play in the same competition just like club licensing prohibits reserves from getting promoted to the Super League.”

Zakazaka said the reserve teams can only  play in the regional play-offs of national competitions for exposure and development, “but they cannot qualify for national draw”.

Meanwhile, FCB Nyasa Bullets, whose reserve side defied the odds to qualify for the final of the FDH Bank Cup last year in which they lost to their seniors, have welcomed the decision.

The club’s chief administration officer Albert Chigoga said: “We have always been questioning the rationale of allowing such a thing to happen over the years.

“A team wins a regional championship and is not allowed promotion to elite league on account that its senior team is in the same division, yet the same team is allowed to participate in a national competition and ends up playing against its senior side in the final  as was the case with our Bullets senior and reserve teams in last year’s FDH Cup final.”

He said the prior arrangement lacked consistency.

“We are hoping that this decision will restore sporting integrity. In future, it will be exciting to see a competition exclusively for all the reserve sides,” said Chigoga.

In a separate interview, Mighty Mukuru Wanderers board secretary Chancy Gondwe saud: “This should be the way to go. That’s how professional leagues manage their cups.”

But on his part, Nomads technical director Mark Harrison, who oversees all the Nomads’ four teams, including the reserve side, said: “I am not sure what the rules say, but at the end of the day, in a national competition players get exposed to more diverse competitions and different scenarios.

“But as a I said, rules are rules and we have to abide by them, there is not much we can do about it.”