Silver, Wanderers eligible for Zambezi Challenge
Mighty Wanderers and Silver Strikers are still eligible to participate in next month’s two-day inaugural Zambezi Challenge at Civo Stadium, Lilongwe despite the Super League of Malawi (Sulom) slapping them with four and six competitive games bans respectively.
Organisers TopSports operations manager Kevin Moyo on Wednesday said FAM granted them a licence to host a pre-season tournament and that according to Fifa statutes which Sulom used to punish the two teams, the February 15 and 16 matches fall in A category.
“A-matches are classified as friendlies and teams are allowed to use up to six substitutes. According to our licence, ours is a pre-season tournament, hence the two teams are eligible. The latest verdict is very specific that Silver and Wanderers are banned from competitive games and ours are classified as friendlies,” Moyo explained yesterday.
Sulom general secretary Williams Banda claimed to be in the dark of the challenge cup “so we can ably comment once we are told”.
Wanderers, Silver and Big Bullets are leading in votes for teams that would be eligible for the tournament.
Voting started last Thursday with the 15 Super League clubs eligible as long as they get enough votes. Caps United of Zimbabwe are expected to participate in the challenge whose champion will pocket K4 million (about $10 000).
