The Football Association of Malawi held its 2023, 2nd Executive Committee meeting on Saturday August 12, 2023 at Sunbird Nkopola in Mangochi . The Executive made a number of resolutions regarding the game of football in Malawi. Some of the key resolutions during the meeting include:
Senior National Team- The Flames
- The Executive Committee approved Malawi National Football team Caretaker Coach Patrick Mabedi programme for the Flames preparations for a 2023 AFCON qualifier against Guinea on September 9, 2023 at the Bingu National Stadium. The Flames will go into a full-time residential camp on Monday August 28, 2023 for two weeks in Lilongwe.
- In order to give the team ample time for the preparations, The Executive resolved to shift the FDH Bank Cup semifinals from 2 and 3 September 2023 to 16 and 17 September as players will not be released for local competitions fixtures during the two-week period.
- The Executive resolved that the Flames will not be engaged for international friendly matches during the October FIFA International window due to lack of funding and tight local football calendar for the elite
- The Executive also resolved that FAM should continue engagement with government on funding for the Guinea match and the two 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers to be played in November.
Football Calendar
The Executive directed the Competitions Committee to revise the Football calendar accordingly following the decision on the changes to the local fixtures as result of the Flames camping programme for the Guinea match. The Season which was initially expected to end on 23rd December 2023 will now end on 31st December.
Club Licensing
The meeting approved the following proposals from the Club Licensing First Instance body:
- Amend the FAM Club Licensing Regulations to include Women’s Football and Regional Football Leagues. Club Licensing for Women’s and Regional Leagues will be piloted for two years using criteria C.
- Minimum qualifications for Youth Coaches and Women’s League to be FAM C/D.
- Qualification for Assistant Coaches of Super League first team to be CAF C from current CAF B and minimum for Head coach to remain at CAF B
- On financial criteria, it will be compulsory for all Super League Clubs to submit annual financial statements from a reputable external audit firm. On proof of non-overdue payables towards employees, all employees will sign a declaration form unlike currently where only the captain was signing.
- Super League clubs will not be paying a surety but their subvention funding from FAM and SULOM will be tied to club licensing where funds will be paid in installments across the season on condition of fulfilling and complying with club licensing conditions at the beginning and during the entire season.
- The Executive resolved that the FAM should come up with categorization of stadiums to provide framework that can be applied and scaled to a range of football stadiums in Football competitions and profile of matches.
- The Executive has guided that the First Instance Body should do a review of the status of Kamuzu Stadium and submit a report to Executive Committee before the end of August 2023. The Executive was informed that FAM conducted an inspection of Mzuzu and Civo Stadium two weeks ago and a report will be submitted in due course.
FAM Regulations on the Status and Transfers of Players
The meeting approved the amendments to the FAM Regulations on the Status and Transfers of Players in line with the amendments made by FIFA as follows:
- Revise the fines on player tapping (in case of a club approaching an engaged player without the permission of the parent club) for a professional player in the Super League from K500,000.00 to K2 million; for an amateur with contract in the Super League from K250,000.00 to K1 million; For Women’s Regional League K1 million, For an amateur with contract in case of Regional Leagues and below from K50,000.00 to K200,000.00 and for all other Women’s Football K25,000.00.
- Introduce training compensation categories as follows:
- Super League clubs- Under Category 1: K2,200,000.00
- Regional Leagues- Under Category 2: K1,100,000.00
- Youth (U19) and Women’s- Under Category 3: K550,000.00
- Under 17 and below to age 12- Under category 4: K250,000.00
The Executive also noted knowledge gap on players transfer matters and guided that FAM should come up with a sensitization programme for all stakeholders on Regulations on Status and Transfer of Players.
Youth and Development
The committee approved the Luwinga Football Academy model which will be residential for both girls and boys and expected to roll out in 2024. The academy will be piloted by Talent Development Scheme from November 2023.
The Executive also gave the Technical department mandate to start licensing football academies from 2024.
The Executive approved Malawi’s participation in the 2023 CAF Schools Championship. The competition’s format has changed whereby a National Schools Select, and not an individual School, will represent the country at the Zonal and Competition level.
-ENDS-
For further information please contact:
FAM Communications Department
Email : communications@fam.mw
