After a year break due to COVID-19 the FIFA/FAM U16 Regional Leagues will resume this weekend in all the four regions.

The leagues were called off in March last year after FAM stopped all football activities following the declaration of Malawi as a state of disaster due to rising cases of Covid.

FAM Youth Football Development Officer James Sangala said the leagues will continue from where they stopped.

Central Region will start from week 12 while the South, Eastern and Northern regions will continue with week 10 fixtures.

“We are excited that we are resuming the leagues. We will continue with the players we had by the time the leagues were called off and after the season, we will release them to go to U17 and U20 teams. We would like to have a complete development pathway for the players, “said Sangala.

By the time the Leagues were suspended, Blantyre Urban was leading the Southern Region log table with 19 points from eight games while Balaka were top of the Eastern Region with 18 points from the same number of games.

Nkhatabay Central are topping the Northern Region table with 16 points, at par with Rumphi but the former have a superior goal difference of 12 against Rumphi’s eight.

In the Central Region, Ascent Academy lead the table with 21 points from eight games .

According to Sangala, best players from each region will be called for a three-day regional camp during the school holidays in August.

The 2019/20 season of the FIFA/FAM U16 regional leagues, which started in December 2019 and were expected to come to an end in July last year will be completed in October 2021.