The Football associations of Malawi says the FAM Districts League have passed the test and are ready to scale up to regional and national championships.
FAM President Walter Nyamilandu Manda made the remarks when he officially launched the Leagues’ third edition at Champions Stadium in Mponela, Dowa on Saturday afternoon.
Nyamilandu Manda : “We started as a trial three years ago and we didn’t know that it will grow like this . It has proved to be a success as we have seen good talent. This competitions must stay as a permanent fixture on our football calendar and aligned with all other football competitions.
“ We have increased the sponsorship this year from K60 million to K 90 million and we intend to increase it further next year. Our budget for the next four years already accommodates this project.
“ But most importantly is that the format of competition must grow . We must increase the scope and start playing at Regional and national level brining together the district champions.”
Blantyre District Football Committee Chairperson Mario Gadaga said: “ We welcome FAM’s idea that we should be going beyond the district level to the regional and national phase. By doing so we will help to expose more players to competitive football. We have talent in the district but we will lose it if they remain confined to playing in their own districts.”
Dedza District Football Commitee chairperson Gift Jere said: “ We would like to thank FAM for this competition. When it was introduced three years ago we thought it was just for one year but look now we are talking about the third edition. Apart from exposing raw talents this competition is also helping us to develop coaches, referees and administrators and if the idea of a national championship come to life Malawi football will improve a lot.
Each district will receive K 3 million and the winners prize money has been increased to K1 million from K750,000.00. The runners up will get K 400,000 while the third placed team will walk away with K200,000.
Each district is expected to register a maximum of 32 teams who will play in two phases. In the first phase the teams will be divided into eight groups of four teams and will play a round robin of One round (Each team playing against each other once). The top team in each group will qualify for the second phase to be played on knockout basis from quarterfinals.
The launch was spiced up by a ceremonial football match between Tchawale City FC and Kalembelembe FC which ended in a one all draw.
