Fam district league launch Saturday
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) is scheduled to launch the long-awaited Fam district leagues at Chintheche Community Centre ground in Nkhata Bay District Saturday.
Fam Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the association’s president Walter Nyamilandu will preside over the ceremony, which will be held under strict Fam Covid Football Restart guidelines.
Kawiya Eagles and Chichiri will play in a ceremonial match to mark the official launch of the leagues in the Northern Region.
Similar events will be held in the Central and Southern regions on August 31 in Salima and August 7 in Nsanje, respectively.
Fam unveiled the K60 million district leagues in March last year but they did not kick off due to the Covid pandemic.
Zakazaka said the leagues, which will be run by district football committees under the supervision of regional football associations, are expected to officially kick off on July 31 2021 in 29 football districts across the country.
“We are all set to roll out. Registration of teams is currently underway and, by the end of the month, we will kick off. We thank all teams for their patience.
“Just like the regional leagues, the district leagues will be played in clusters and each district will be expected to register a maximum of 16 teams,” Zakazaka said.
He said the leagues are aimed at putting in place systematic football development structures to enable unearthing of talent from rural areas.
“The leagues will fulfil our desire to raise the bar by putting in more effort in district and regional football which act as feeder leagues to elite football.
“Our football has struggled to reach its full potential in the past as we spent more time and energy on elite football and ignored the lower end. But that changes as we now put in place a cross-cutting agenda of bottom-up approach in order to develop players with raw talent,” Zakazaka said.
