FAM courts Mali, Senegal, Burkina for friendly matches

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has written Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso asking for a strength-testing match in the build-up to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) double qualifier against Guinea in March.

Disclosing the development on Monday, FAM general secretary (GS) Suzgo Nyirenda said they targeted the three teams because of their proximity to Guinea where the first Afcon qualifying game will take place.

“If one of these teams accepts then we will have to travel there on our way to Guinea,” he said.

Nyirenda said, so far, Mali has shown positive signs that it may accept the friendly.

“The Mali FA has responded, saying that they are willing to play the friendly match,” he said.

But the FAM GS said Mali has promised to make a clear decision once they have finished playing at the African Nations Championship (Chan).

The tournament, comprising players that play in domestic leagues, is currently underway in Rwanda. It is scheduled to conclude later this month.

On Burkina Faso response, Nyirenda said its football association has said that, at the moment, the national team does not have a coach who was supposed to weigh the benefits of the friendly request.

“Burkina Faso will wait until they have appointed a new coach before deciding. Meanwhile, Senegal has not responded to our proposal,” he said.

Flames coach Ernest Mtawali believes that the friendly will help his squad to gel as he seeks to guide the team to the 2017 Afcon finals in Gabon.

“My target is to have a mixture of foreign-based and local players. So, for them to gel, we will need to play at least one friendly,” he said.

Flames are campaign in Group L of the Afcon qualifiers. Other opponents are Swaziland and Zimbabwe both of whom have four points from two games while Malawi and Guinea have one point each. n