Introduction
The FAM National Women’s Championship is a National competition for Women’s Football organized by the National Women’s Football Association (NWFA) with funding from the Football Association of Malawi (FAM). The 2023 edition will be played for a period of one week between 22nd and 28th April 2024.
Participation
The FAM National Women’s Championship will be participated by 10 teams. The teams are comprised of the three top teams from each of the 2023 FAM Regional Women’s Football Leagues, plus one team which will win the play offs for the three Leagues’ fourth placed teams.
Player Eligibility
Each team will use players registered with their respective Regional Women’s Football Association for the 2022 Season and will use MPIRA CONNECT and their Leagues Registration cards for identification. The Mpira Connect Registration is a must and only those actively registered in the Mpira Connect System will be eligible to participate.
Format
The Championship will be played on knockout basis in the following phases:
The First Play Offs: The best fourth placed team shall be determined through play-offs which will be conducted before the National Championship draw to come up with 10 teams. The three teams that will take part in the First Playoffs are:
- Bvumbwe FC (South)
- Civil Service Women (Centre)
- Ekwendeni Sisters (North)
The Playoffs will be played on Saturday 13th April 2024 at the Mpira Village in Blantyre.
The Second Play-offs: The three third-placed teams from the regions and the winner from the first play-off will compete against each other whereby the two winning teams will proceed to the quarter finals.
The three third placed teams that will be joined by playoffs winners for this phase are Mighty Wanderers Queens (South), Silver Strikers Ladies (Centre) and CY Sisters (North)
Quarter Finals: The first and second placed teams in the three Regional Leagues will be seeded from the playoffs and will be joined by the two winning teams from the second play offs in the quarter finals. The four winning teams will proceed to the semifinals, then the final for the Semifinal winners and third place playoffs for the losing semifinalists.
The six seeded teams that will join the competition at this level are:
Ntopwa FC and FCB Nysa Big Bullets Women (South)
MDF Lioness and Ascent Academy (Centre)
Moyale Sisters and MK Academy (North)
The second playoffs and the rest of the matches will take place in Lilongwe at a venue to be communicated later as per the calendar of events below
April
13-First Play-offs and draw
22-Second Play-offs
23 – 24 Quarter finals
26-Semifinals
28-Final
Each of the 10 qualifying teams will receive a subvention of K1 Million during the second playoffs and quarterfinals. The four Semifinalists will also pocket K1 Million each.
The National Champions will represent Malawi at the 2024 CAF Women’s Champions League COSAFA Qualifier to be held in Durban, South Africa later this year.
