Football has dominated the list of nominees for the 2023 Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) Awards.
According to the list released by MNCS on Tuesday afternoon, football has nominees in seven of the 15 categories which includes Junior female sportsperson of the year, sport woman of the year, non-citizen of the year, national team of the year, sports association of the year, umpire/referee/judge of the year and coach of the year.
Victoria Mkwala from the Malawi Schools Girls’ team that participated at the CAF Schools Championship-Cosafa Qualifiers in Zimbabwe in December last year, has been nominated in the Junior Female Sportsperson of the Year. Mkwala was also part of the same team that participated in the inaugural competition hosted by Malawi in October 2022 where she was named player of the tournament for the girls’ competition.
The Scorchers Captain Tabitha Chawinga and her sister Temwa have been nominated in the ‘Sport Woman of the year’ category. Tabitha’s nomination follows the strides she made by being the first African to win the Serie A Femminile Golden Boot with 23 goals in the 2022/23 season. She is also the first Malawian to play and score in the UEFA Women’s Champions League and was named in the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) CAF Women Team of the Year 2023.
For Temwa Chawinga, she led the Scorchers to win Gold at the 2023 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women’s Championship and she was named the player of the tournament as well as top goal scorer. Chawinga was also named world women’s top scorer for 2023 wit 63 goals by IFFHS and together with her sister, she was among the nominees for the CAF Women player of the year award.
FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Head Coach is among the three nominees for the ‘Non-Citizen of the year’ award after winning the historic quadruple in the 2023 football season. Pasuwa guided Bullets to win the TNM Super League, Airtel Top 8, FDH Bank Cup and the Castel Challenge Cup. Pasuwa has also defended the TNM Super League title for the fifth consecutive year.
The 2023 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women’s Championship Gold Medalists, the Malawi National Women’s team have been nominated in the ‘National Team of the year’ category. The Cosafa Championship was the team’s first ever international title and they got it with a 100 percent win record. The Scorchers were the only National Team for the country, to win Silverware in 2023 and the team was also nominated for the CAF Awards.
In the Sports Association of the year, Football Association of Malawi is among the top three nominees following efforts made to develop women’s football by among other things winning gold at Cosafa and exporting players to foreign Leagues. Malawi has 11 Women’s football players plying their trade in Zambia, DRC, France and USA among other countries.
The Scorchers Coach Lovemore Fazili is among the nominees for the ‘Coach of the year’ award. He guided the team to win their first ever international Silverware by winning the 2023 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Women’s Championship. Fazili was named the Coach of the tournament for the competition and he was also among the nominees for the 2023 CAF Women’s Coach of the year.
Female FIFA Referee Enes Gumbo is another football personality in the list of nominees under the ‘Umpire/Referee/Judge of the year’ award. Gumbo was part of the officiating panel for the match between Tanzania and Togo in November last year and before that, she officiated the U20 Women World Cup Qualifying match between Zambia and Mozambique in October. Gumbo was also part of the officiating teams for three matches of the CAF Champions League in Ivory Coast in November 2023.
Reacting on the nominations, FAM General Secretary Alfred Gunda says the recognition signifies tremendous efforts made by the association in developing football at all levels.
“It’s another milestone in the history of football in Malawi because it shows that there is a lot of work that has been done in developing football is getting recognition at national level.
“Having seven nomination in 15 categories is a proof enough of football dominance in the space of sports and it also shows that football is not leaving anyone behind with the nominees coming from youth, women as well as men’s football”, said Gunda.
The Malawi National Council of Sports Awards Gala will be held on Friday, 16th February 2023 at Bingu International Convention Center (BICC) in Lilongwe.
