Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has taken steps to revive the country’s national schools team which used to produce great players in the 1970s and 80s.
The association’s general secretary Alfred Gunda said they will deploy coaches during educational division finals to ensure that only the best players are selected for this initiative.
“We have adopted a new format where we will now have a national select team made up of players from various schools across the country. A panel of coaches will select these players at the end of divisional finals in all of the country’s seven centres.
“This means that we will not have a particular school representing the country in the Caf [Confederation of African Football] schools championship as was the case with Salima Secondary School early this year,” Gunda said, adding that the change started with Caf.
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The continental football governing body started the competition early this year in Durban, South Africa, where Salima represented Malawi and finished third.
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Meanwhile, Malawi Schools Sports Association Chairperson Blackson Malamula has said the divisional finals will be held this weekend in Lilongwe.
Malamula said the coaches will select both male and female players to start the process of forming the national schools teams.
“We started with district and proceeded to regional level. So, we are now at division level and we expect to have fierce competition when these schools meet.
“We have been working hand-in-hand with Fam behind the scenes to ensure that everything goes according to plan.
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“It is indeed pleasing to note that, from now onwards, it will be a national select team representing us, unlike in the inaugural tournament where individual schools were representing their respective countries,” he said.
Salima won bronze in South Africa after beating Benin’s Sainte Rita 3-1 in the third place play-off to win $150,000 (about K164 million).
