FAM says no football competitions should be staged in the country without the organizers providing match balls.

FAM president Fleetwood Haiya made the remarks on Saturday at Champion Stadium in Mponela, Dowa during the official kickoff of the 2024 Castel Challenge Cup.

The Association in conjunction with Castel Malawi donated 217 footballs to Districts Football Committees for use in the Castel Challenge Cup. Each District will receive seven match balls.

Haiya said: “We cannot start football matches or competitions without providing footballs. Teams and organizers should have match balls. We have had competitions where orgnaisers did not have a single match ball and sometimes matches were abandoned due to lack of proper match balls. That stops now.”

He added that FAM believes this year’s Castle Cup will be competitive with the increase in sponsorship and prize money.

“We would like thank Castle for seeing value in the game and the FAM leadership. When we reached out to them at the beginning of the year on the sponsorship hike, they did not hesitate to act despite having contract for the next two seasons. We don’t take that for granted and as FAM we commit to continue  giving them value,” he said.

Castel Head of Marketing and Cooperate Communication Lavern Chitakata said the company is excited to be back for a new season as they see a lot of value in the game.

“It is our wish to see the growth of football in Malawi and rural areas. We have seen big value in football since we started sponsoring the cup last year.

“We see how it has impacted a lot of communities. The raising of the sponsorship within a year shows our commitment to football development and we are here to stay,” she said.

During the kickoff Blue Eagles beat St Gabriel Zitha 2-0 in a Regional Preliminary Phase match.