Malawi Sports Council meets FAM on Flames coaching panel

FAM will meet government and Malawi National Council of Sports today to discuss matters related to the new Flames coaching panel.

The meeting follows the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) appointment of a five-member coaching panel headed by Young Chimodzi Snr with Jack Chamangwana as his deputy. FAM also appointed Franco Ndawa and Phillip Nyasulu as team manager and goalkeeper trainer respectively.

Sports Council executive secretary George Jana said the outcome of the meeting will determine whether the new panel will be offered contracts.

“FAM is expected to make a presentation on their move to appoint a new coaching panel as well as their expectations,” said Jana.

Asked if a decision to endorse the new panel will be made at the meeting, Jana said: “The major players are government because they are the ones who provide the package and I suspect they may have to consult other stakeholders.”

However, last week Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Justin Saidi said government would have no problems if Chimodzi and Chamangwana were to be taken back on board by FAM.

“The thing is we redeployed them after they were removed from the Flames panel by FAM, but if in their [FAM] wisdom would want to retain them, then there would be no problem since they will still be within the football set-up.

“It will [just] be a matter of working on the logistics. As it is now, we will wait to hear from FAM,” said Saidi.

Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Enoch Chihana has said he has shelved the move to negotiate with the Scottish FA to consider providing a national coach following FAM’s move to hire a new panel.

“For the sake of continuity, we will shelve the move for now and support the coaches that FAM has put in place.

“Young and Jack are respected coaches with vast experience and highly disciplined. We just need to support their programmes and see how they perform,” said Chihana.

He also said he was yet to get a response from the Scottish FA on his request.

“They have not come back to us probably because they had a festive season break, but in the event that they respond favourably, then we will ask FAM to engage the Scottish coach as a technical director and ask them to assign [John] Kaputa other duties,” he said.