Football Association of Malawi has urged Women’s Football Clubs in the country to look beyond the obstacles that the game is facing in order to break the barriers that exist between Men’s and Women’s Football.
FAM President Walter Nyamilandu Manda made the remarks at Mpira Village on Tuesday afternoon during the closing ceremony of a day-long Women’s Football Club Licensing Workshop.
The Women’s Football Club licensing is one of the projects that FAM is running under the FIFA Women’s Football Development Programs and is aimed at professionalising Women’s Football in the country.
Nyamilandu Manda said Women’s football has great potential to develop faster and take Malawi to continental and global heights if clubs start doing things differently.
“This is my first time to be in the same room with Women’s football clubs and just by being in this workshop is a strong gesture that we don’t want to stay where we are today but we want to move forward.
“Professionalising Women’s football is all about mindset change and challenging ourselves to do more and look beyond the obstacles and prove that we are capable of making it.
“Women Football Administrators don’t need to undermine themselves but break the barriers that has always been there. Let us have our Women’s football teams coached by the best coaches and once we start doing things differently, we will market the game and open doors for sponsors,” said Nyamilandu.
FIFA Professional Football Development Advisor Jose Andres Portabella, who facilitated the workshop, said: “Club Licensing is a tool that is being implemented in all six confederations to raise the standards of football clubs in the World. Through this, we are hoping that will be able to look at Women’s Football in a before and after moment and FIFA will continue to support Malawi FA in implementing this project and we are looking forward to seeing positive results after this project is implemented.
“Club Licensing is developed with the football club in mind so we needed to start this together by getting the reality of the situation at hand and designing the possible way of licensing the clubs.”
In her remarks, National Women’s Football Association Chairperson Adellaide Migogo said: “The workshop was an eye opener for Malawi Women’s football clubs. Club Licensing will professionalize the game and bring the Clubs and the FA together.”
Speaking on behalf of the clubs, Ellina Mumba from Ascent Academy said the workshop has given the clubs a different view of how they should conduct their business.
“The event has been a wonderful experience because we have learnt how we can handle our clubs professionally and how we can improve Women’s football like having proper administration structure and we are going to impart this knowledge to our colleagues in the Clubs,” she said.
FAM Club Licensing Manager Casper Jangale said FAM will work hard to improve the quality of Women’s Football in the country by piloting the club Licensing system.
“Today was more about introducing club licensing to the Women’s Clubs. Then we will come up with regulations and criteria which will be tailor made in line with the status of our Women’s game and we will move gradually just like we did with Men’s Super League clubs,” said Jangale.
The workshop brought together representatives from the 24 teams that participate in the FAM Women’s Leagues, Members of the National Women’s Football Association as well as the FAM Secretariat staff.
