Football Associations of Malawi says the FIFA funded Talent Development Scheme will help produce quality players for the Flames through a structured player development pathway.

FAM President Walter Nyamilandu Manda said this on Saturday morning when he officially launched the programme at the Mpira Village in Blantyre

The program aims at harmonizing football development across the 211 FIFA Member Associations and FAM applied to specifically develop future elite league and national team players.

Nyamilandu Manda said: “The TDS will help us address the height, physique and some other challenges that have been haunting us for a long time because we will identify and train these kids from this tender age which is very efficient. There are a number of criteria that were set in identifying these talents as we are looking to build players that meet all the requirements even at an international level.

“We have also designed this program in a way that it will even benefit the district coaches that will be coming together with the players during these camps. We want the coaches be familiar with the coaching philosophy that will be imparted in the players so that they continue training them when they go back to their districts.”

The program has been piloted in the southern region and will next year be replicated in the other regions.

Apart from developing players , the programme will be used to build a network of coaches that will be very instrumental in identifying and nurturing the talent.

Through the program, the identified talented players between 15-20 years old will be brought together for a 5-day camping every month where they will undergo individual and team trainings before playing friendly games on the final day of each camp.

About 27 players from 10 southern region districts have formed the developmental squad for the pilot phase of TDS and during the launch they played a friendly match with Namiwawa FC which they lost 1-0.

FIFA is funding the program to the tune of 50,000 US Dollars.