Season kick-off shifted
The 2020 football season kick-off has been rescheduled from November 14 to November 21 because the earlier date clashes with Flames’ 2022 African Cup of Nations’ (Afcon) back-to-to qualifier against Burkina Faso’s Stallions.
Two weeks ago, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) announced that the season would kick-off on November 14 with the Ecobank Chifundo Charity Shield while the TNM Super League was expected to kick-off a week later on November 21.
However, following a confirmation of the dates for the Afcon qualifiers by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), FAM has changed its calendar.
FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka confirmed the development in an interview yesterday.
He said: “CAF has confirmed that Malawi will play away to Burkina Faso on November 12 while the return leg is on November 16.
“This means that the Flames players will remain in camp after returning from Ouagadougou making it impossible to play the Ecobank Charity Shield on the weekend of November 14 and 15.
“As a result, the Ecobank Charity Shield will be played on the weekend of November 21 to 22. The TNM Super League kick off has been affected since it has to be played a week after the Charity Shield which marks the beginning of the football calendar.”
Super League of Malawi (Sulom) general secretary Williams Banda said the change will not have an effect on the league’s programmes.
“The kick-off has indeed been shifted to pave way for the Charity Shield. The TNM Super League will, therefore, kick-off on November 28,” he said.
Initially, the 2020 season was supposed to kick-off in March, but it was suspended after government froze all sporting events as a preventive measure against the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Government has lifted the ban and the national football team, the Flames, already resumed activities while all other sporting events will resume on October 17.
