Tanzania-born player opts to play for Malawi
Tanzania-born Nyasa Big Bullets midfielder Meshack Seleman has chosen to play for the Malawi national football team amid an outcry from his country of origin.
The outcry in Tanzania follows Flames coach Meck Mwase’s decision to call the player for camp in preparation for the Cosafa Cup.
Tanzania’s Futball Planet website www.planetfootball.com on Monday reported about Football Association of Malawi (FAM) enticing the 24-year-old to play for Malawi.
Its report reads: “Tanzanian international striker Meshack Seleman has been called to the Malawi national team which will participate in Cosafa Cup early next month July.
“Meshack Seleman is a Tanzanian, who plays for the Malawi premier league club of Nyasa Big Bullets, also played for Mbeya City and Tanzania Prisons some years ago.”
Tanzania Premier League records show that Seleman, whose father is from Tanzania’s border district of Kyela, in Mbeya City and his mother is Malawian, registered as a Tanzanian with Prison Football Club and Mbeya FC between 2015 and 2018.
The player yesterday confirmed playing for the two clubs while in Tanzania and said he has opted to play for the Flames and not the Taifa Stars.
He said: “I have chosen to play for the Flames because of my mother’s nationality. She is from Karonga.”
FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda said the player can pick which country he wants to play for since his parents are from Malawi and Tanzania.
“There are Fifa rules governing players with parents of different nationalities,” he said.
Fifa Statutes Article 7 on Acquisition of a new nationality, states that a player who wishes to assume a new nationality and who has not played international football [in a match either in full or in part in an official competition of any category or any type of football] shall be eligible to play for the new representative team only if he fulfils one of the following conditions: He was born on the territory of the relevant association; His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant association; c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant association; He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant association.
In this case, Seleman may play for Malawi since one of his parents is Malawian. Scotland-born defender Kieran Ngwenya, who has a Malawian father and Caribbean mother, recently also opted to play for the Malawi national team though he was also eligible to play for Scotland.
