Youth soccer suffers blow
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) says Malawi will not participate in youth competitions lined up in the 2022 Cosafa calendar due to financial constraints.
FAM’s position follows the calendar Council for Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) released yesterday which indicates that the region will have 14 joint competitions with Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Fifa.
FAM president Walter Nyamilandu yesterday said Malawi will only participate in 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), 2023 Africa Nations Championship (Chan), Cosafa Cup, Cosafa Women’s Championship and Cosafa Beach Soccer tournaments.
He said: “There is no way this is manageable with our current level of funding and sponsorship towards the national teams.”
The decision will affect women’s and youth football since Malawi will not participate in the Cosafa Boys Under-17, Cosafa Girls Under-17, Cosafa Boys Under-20, Cosafa Girls Under-20, Cosafa/CAF Women’s Champions League, CAF Under-17 Afcon, CAF Under-20 Afcon and CAF African Schools Championship.
But Nyamilandu said a call will have to be made on what is best for Malawi based on what the association gets from government.
In 2019/20 financial year, government through the Malawi National Council of Sports allocated K300 million out of the K1.4 billion that FAM proposed.
In the 2020/21 national budget, FAM was allocated K240 million, down from K300 million, representing a 20 percent drop after submitting a K1.4 billion budget.
FAM had to divert funding from other projects and $100 000 funding from Fifa to complement government’s national team funding during 2021 Afcon qualifers.
This year, FAM submitted K1.5 billion budget and Nyamilandu said unless government fully funds them, other programmes will have to be left out.
“We are falling short of the required K1 billion to cater for national team engagements. We will make a call on what’s best so that we don’t suffocate operations and paralyse development programmes.”
Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said they will discuss the sports associations allocations following the passage of the 2022/23 national budget in which it has been allocated K2.3 billion.
He said: “There are a lot of sports programmes which need funding. Netball Association of Malawi has Queens programmes, Hockey Association of Malawi is also hosting an international tournament. All of them have to be considered from the same allocation.”
But soccer analyst Charles Nyirenda said though funding is tight, FAM has to ensure Malawi participates in youth competitions.
He said: “It will be a big mistake to miss out on these age bracket competitions. This is where we expose our talent and they are a priority.”
