Cecafa participation hangs in the balance
The possibility of Malawi National Football Team participating in this year’s Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) Challenge Cup hangs in the balance.
Football Association of Malawi’s (Fam) outgoing General Secretary, Suzgo Nyirenda, yesterday said the participation in the tournament, scheduled for Kenya later this month, was not automatic.
“We are supposed to apply for participation and the Cecafa governing body approves. However, we have not sent the application, but we will do so. Therefore, it would be too early to mention whether we are participating or not,” Nyirenda said.
He, however, suggested that it would be insignificant if the team fail to participate in the competition as they will play in the African Nations Championship (Chan) in 2018.
“The K33 million our national team gets as its funding is not enough to manage the team in the Cecafa and later at Chan,” he added.
Uganda are the defending champions of the Cecafa Cup.
Initially, Sudan were supposed to host the tournament but they withdrew due to financial issues.
Malawi, which crashed out in the quarterfinals of last year’s edition after losing 2-0 to Uganda in Ethiopia, last won the cup in 1988.

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