The National Football Coaches Association (NFCA) has questioned the system used to select players for Malawi’s junior national teams, following concerns over the composition of the Malawi Under-20 squad for the 2026 Caf under-20 Africa Cup of Nations Cosafa qualifiers.
The 32-member provisional squad has 14 players from Ekhaya Football Club, where head coach Enos Chatama worked before he was fired last week.
Chatama was dismissed two weeks after leading the Cowboys to their maiden Airtel Top 8 triumph, beating Mighty Wanderers in the final.
The high number of Ekhaya players has raised questions over whether the selection process was providing enough opportunities for talented players from other clubs, particularly those competing in the under-17 and 20 youth leagues.
Chatama retained 10 players from the 18-member squad that represented Malawi at last year’s Cosafa under-20 Championship during the Region 5 Youth Games in Windhoek, Namibia.
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The former Ekhaya coach said the Football Association of Malawi (Fam) had initially vetted a pool of 42 players before he selected the provisional squad.
He said most of the players were familiar to him because he had previously coached them at under-17 level while 21 players in the squad had gone through a proper development process.
The junior Flames are in Group C alongside Zambia, Comoros and Botswana in the regional qualifiers, which will be held in Mozambique from September 18 to 27.
“Fam is a big institution. They looked at the previous squads and at the players who were eligible. We have seen that there were a lot of better players, but others cannot make it. It is not about which teams they are coming from, but for how long they have been playing for national team junior teams,” Chatama said.
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However, NFCA Chairperson Aubrey Nankhuni has blamed the current selection system, saying it does not adequately identify talent from across the country.
Nankhuni said the process needed to be reviewed to ensure that players from different clubs and regions were given an opportunity to be assessed for junior national teams.
