Race against time

• Wanderers, Masters have 5 days to register players for CAF

Be Forward Wanderers and Masters Security FC face a race against time to register players for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) club tournaments.

The deadline for player registration in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup is this coming Sunday, but Football Association of Malawi (FAM) acting competitions manager Casper Jangale said as of on Monday, both teams had not done the process.

The Nomads will take part in the Champions League while Masters will compete in the Confederation Cup.

“We have an assurance though that both teams have started the process and, hopefully, they should provide all the details before Sunday’s cutoff point,” he said.

Jangale said CAF provides grace period but it goes with a $500 (about K367 000) fee per player.

“We would, therefore, urge the clubs to act with speed to avoid such a predicament,” he said.

Teams are allowed to register 30 players each.

“But there is a provision to register 20 players with the hope of beefing up their squads at a later stage,” said the FAM official.

Nomads general secretary (GS) Mike Butao confirmed on Monday that they are yet to start the player registration process.

“We will first have to undergo a season review meeting on Tuesday [today], then we will take it up from there,” he said.

Masters GS Zacharia Nyirenda also said they are yet to register their players for the continental showpiece and he could not tell when they would start serious preparations.

“We are yet to start registration of players and I cannot say when our preparations will begin. However, what you should bear in mind is that Masters will compete in Confederations Cup,” he said.

Observers have cast doubt on the club’s ability to fulfil their fixtures in the financially-demanding continental showpiece following their recent challenges, including players’ boycotting of their last TNM Super League match against Nyasa Big Bullets at MDC Stadium in Blantyre on Saturday over last months’ unpaid dues.

But Nyirenda insisted that the issue is being sorted out and they will rise above expectations to compete for the continental honours.

Jangale also played down the fears, saying the issue of Masters players failing to honour players’ bonuses should not be used as a yardstick on their capacity to compete in a continental tournament.

“I think it is not fair to jump to conclusions based on that predicament alone, delay to pay players does not mean they do not have the financial capacity,” he said.

Masters are expected to travel to Angola to take on Atletico Petroleos de Luanda  while the Nomads will host AS Vita from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the first legs of their preliminary games between February 9 and 11 2018.