Football Association of Malawi (FAM) President Fleetwood Haiya has assured Malawians that the Malawi National Women’s team will travel to Zambia for their friendly matches against the Copper Queens next week.
Speaking during a press conference at FAM’s head office in Chiwembe, Haiya emphasized the importance of keeping the women’s national team active.
The development comes after Malawi National Council of Sports indicated that there are no funds for the activity casting doubt on the trip.
“As you are aware the team is in camp preparing for two friendly matches against Zambia on the FIFA window between 17 and 25 February 2025. Initially, during the period, the Scorchers were scheduled to play Congo Brazzaville in the 2026 CAF Women’s AFCON Qualifiers, but the matches were cancelled following the withdraw of CONGO”
“As FAM we decided to arrange friendly matches against Zambia on the same dates. The idea was to use the same funds we would have used for the CONGO matches for our trip to Zambia.” He said.
On relationship with government Haiya stated
“We will continue to engage government to fund this important activity despite the stand as communicated by MNSC, and we hope that we will be able to unlock some doors so that our girls are not denied this precious opportunity.”
Regarding the ongoing training camp, Haiya added
“We have called all the foreign based players for the match camp, and we expect them to be in the country in the next few days. Zambia is also bringing all their players, and we are going to do the same”
On the other hand, FAM has embarked on a resource mobilization drive by engaging the private sector to assist in this drive to realize a lifetime dream for our girls.
The Scorchers were initially scheduled to play against the Republic of the Congo in the WAFCON qualifiers, but Congo withdraw from the competition.
The local based players began camp on Friday, 7th February 2025 in Blantyre while the foreign based players will join the team later on.
In the next round of AFCON qualifiers, Malawi will play against the winner between Zimbabwe and Angola in October and will qualify for their debut AFCON if they win that tie.
