The 2024 FCB Under-19 Katswiri national finals get underway at Luwinga Technical Centre in Mzuzu tomorrow as four select teams fight for the national honours.
It will be an action-packed two days as the competition has attracted emerging talent from four select teams namely hosts Northern Region, Southern Region, Central Region 1 and Central Region 2.
This year’s tournament has adopted a new setup as it moved away from individual regional champions with each region represented by the best players from all the qualifiers.
The Central Region has produced two teams as it has six districts where the competition is played while the rest of the regions have one select team each as they have four districts each. The league is played in 14 districts in the country.
Each region has brought 20 players making a total of 80 players. The finals will be played on round robin format as each team will face each other.
Southern Region Select and Central Region Select 1 will lock horns in the opening match on Friday afternoon before paving the way for Northern Region Select and Central Region Select 2.
National Youth Football Association (NYFA) General Secretary James Sawelengera said all is set for the national finals.
’’It has been an exciting journey since July 13 this year when the league kicked off. We expect exciting tournament as every Katswiri would want to prove his worth,’’ said Sawelengera.
Furthermore, Sawelengera said by having regional select teams, it would be a good platform for the best emerging talent to showcase their skills.
’’ The idea is to expose even the player whose team finished bottom of the table but has exceptional skill,’’ said Sawelengera.
According to Sawelengera, NYFA will also conduct Corporate Social Responsibility at SOS where 160 learners with disabilities will receive learning materials worthy K1 million.
The champions will pocket K1.5 million plus a trophy while the runners-up will get K1million. The third-placed team will receive K600,000 while the fourth-placed team will walk away with K400,000.
The 16 best players will each receive K100,000. On top of that, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the Top Goal Scorer will get K50,000 each.
