Kasungu Community Centre Ground will be a beehive of action as the First Merchant Bank (FMB) will be launching the 2017 Under-20 Football League on tomorrow.
National Football Youth Association (NYFA) chairperson Chimango Munthali said the event will start with a parade of the trophy and later football matches.
“We will have a parade after which there will be football matches involving a team of sports administrators called Friends of Walter and FMB staff team called Friends of Philip Madinga. The main game will be between Lilongwe Under-20 select versus Kasungu Under-20 select,” said Munthali.
pose after pre-launch cocktail
He expressed gratitude to FMB for their commitment in sponsoring youth football.
“It’s eight years since FMB started sponsoring the Under-20 league. They started with K4 million and now it is at K24 million. It shows they’re truly committed to seeing football at grassroots grow. They have been true partners to the game of football,” he said.
Munthali announced that this year they will be promoting FMB mobile application product as a way of saying thank you to the bank.
FMB marketing manager Widdey Nsona said they are excited with the launch of the new season.
“There will be increased competition this year since we have added three more districts and in total 12 districts will be competing. Our goal is to nurture and develop talent at grassroots so that it can translate into the success of the national teams. We are inspiring the youths to realise their football talents,” he said.
On the mobile application service, Nsona said the product allows FMB customers to have access to their account 24 hours.
He said: “Our customers cannot only access the account, but can also transact like sending money to any recipients , checking balances and accessing mini statements and many other services. It makes it easier for our customers to do transactions without the hustle of queuing up at the bank.”
Meanwhile, Munthali announced that this year 152 teams have registered for the tournament as compared to last year’s 120.
“In terms of number of players who will take part in the tournament, there are 4 800 as compared to last year’s 3 300. This is tremendous growth and more youths will have an opportunity to develop their football talents,” he said. n
