Malawi National Council of Sports says it is waiting for government’s response on a request for about K500 million for Malawi Queens and Flames funding for upcoming engagements.
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) submitted a request for over K300 million extra funding to meet the costs of the Championship of African Nations (Chan) qualifiers as well as the Cosafa Cup while their netball counterparts NAM submitted a K160 million request for the 2019 Netball World Cup.
Sports Council executive secretary George Jana yesterday said: “Submission of the requests for extra funding was made to the Ministry
[of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development]
and we are waiting for a response from the authorities.”
The Netball World Cup is slated for July in Liverpool, England.
Meanwhile,FAM president Walter Nyamilandu says they will proceed with the Flames camping on Monday “with the hope that Malawi Government will come to our rescue”.
He said: “Our coffers are dry, having financed Under-23 national team’s engagements which included overseas camping and the Flames’ [2019] Africa Cup of Nations’ [Afcon] qualifier against Morocco and now the women’s team 2020 Olympics qualifiers against Mozambique.”
Nyamilandu said the Flames squad will be announced this weekend once the executive committee decides on the composition of the technical panel with advice from FAM technical subcommittee.
“Chan is a very important tournament for us as it will expose the young squad that has been assembled lately and showed lots of potential against Morocco and Zambia
“This is the right time to start getting prepared for Afcon 2021 so that we are well prepared for the qualifiers next year having focused on rebuilding the team in the just-ended edition,” he said.
FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda said the issue will also be tabled during the association’s executive committee meeting today in Salima.
“We already confirmed participation and the issue now is about sourcing resources for participation, otherwise there are two ways about it.
“So, apart from waiting for government’s response, the executive committee will provide direction on how we should proceed,” he said.
The Flames will face e-Swatini (formerly Swaziland) in the first leg on April 20 and the return leg for the locally-based players’ competition qualifiers is slated for May 11. n
