FAM shelves 2017 Afcon participation
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) executive committee has decided to shelve confirmation of participation in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations until CAF clarifies the dates.
FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said the decision was made at a meeting held on Saturday in Blantyre in view of the dates set by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) that the opening qualifiers will be held in June, which will be within the current financial year whose allocation FAM has already exhausted.
CAF announced recently that the opening qualifiers of the 31st edition of the continental showcase will be held on June 8 and 16.
However, Nyamilandu said the meeting agreed to take part in the Championship of African Nations (Chan) and the Cosafa Cup using funds that are available such as the K50 million from Carlsberg Malawi Limited and part of funding from Fifa.
“We are not certain about Afcon because the dates were only posted on CAF website, but we did not get an official memo on the same.
“So, it was agreed that we seek clarification whether Afcon qualifiers will run concurrently with Chan, because we find it awkward that they should be held within the same period,” said Nyamilandu.
He added that the meeting agreed to buy a bus for the national team using the grant from Fifa.
“Using the same grant, it was also agreed that we complete the lower part of Chiwembe Technical Centre, in particular the hotel project and construction of a wall fence at the land that we acquired in Lilongwe,” he said.
