Presidential Cup registration begins
Registration for the Presidential Football Cup has gone underway in all the districts ahead of kickoff early next month, resultantly ending two years of the tournament’s absence.
Confirming the development, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) competition manager GomezganiZakakaza said all district football authorities were asked to start registering teams on Saturday.
“We have told the districts to register a minimum of 32 teams each. Anything more than that would make it difficult to successfully organise the competition,” he said.
Zakazaka said the registration fee has been pegged at K10 000, an amount he described as fair.
“We believe that teams will be able to pay the fee without difficulties. The fees will help us to ably organise the competition.”
The FAM competitions manager said the tournament would start at district level on March 5, meaning that interested teams have a week to register.
“Teams should not expect us to extend the registration period. We have already delayed because the competition was supposed to start last month,” Zakazaka said.
FAM failed to organise the government sponsored tournament in the past two years after the association diverted part of the funding to the Malawi national football team which was lacking resources to fulfill its assignment.
Meanwhile, Beach Soccer Malawi general secretary Davis Sado queried FAM for using the tournament’s resources.
Speaking during a FAM Extraordinary General Meeting in Blantyre on Saturday, Sado said the move affected football development.
“What it meant is that other areas of the sport which were intended to benefit from the resources did not benefit. This was not good for the game,” he said.
In response, FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said he shared Sado’s concern but said they had no choice as failure to use the funds meant Flames’ withdrawal from the Africa Cup of Nations and other assignments.
