Banda—Picture courtesy of Bullets Facebook page
Malawi’s Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League flag carriers FCB Nyasa Big Bullets have registered attacking midfielder Peter Banda for Caf Champions League.
This could be a timely boost for Bullets ahead of their second preliminary matches against Democratic Republic of Congo’s TP Mazembe.
Both Bullets Chief Administration Officer Albert Chigoga and Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Club Licencing Manager Casper Jangale confirmed the development in separate interviews.
Chigoga said the availability of Banda will boost Bullets’ chances of beating Mazembe.
“After Banda accepted to return at Bullets we did not hesitate to register him for the Caf competition. He is a national team player with more experience. Playing at Simba means he is the right guy to help us at this stage,” Chigoga said.
Bullets managed to beat the deadline for the second registration period, which closed on August 31 2023.
Banda is eligible to play for Bullets as he did not feature for Simba in this year’s competition, according to Caf rules and regulations on players’ registration period.
On his part, Jangale said Bullets were entitled to register other players for the second preliminary matches.
“Teams can register 40 players. So, since Banda was with Simba, we did our part by ensuring that his International Transfer Certificate (ITC) was sent to Caf. Indeed, the player can play for Bullets in Caf Champions League,’’Jangale said.
Banda returned to Bullets after mutual termination of his contract with Simba last week.
Bullets will host Mazembe on September 17 at Bingu National Stadium before a return leg in Lubumbashi two weeks later. They advanced to the second preliminary round after beating Dragon FC of Equatorial Guinea 3-0 on aggregate.
