FDH Cup national draw Thursday
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) is scheduled to conduct the 2023 FDH Bank Cup national draw at Mpira Village in Blantyre this morning.
The draw will involve 16 TNM Super League teams and another 16 from the country’s three regional leagues.
This follows the conclusion of regional preliminary round matches last weekend which involved 60 regional league teams.
According to a Fam press statement released Wednesday, Southern Region had 22 teams while 18 competed in the Central Region, with the North having 20.
“Following Fam’s decision to bar Reserve Sides of Super League from joining the National phase of the competition, the immediate losers in ties against reserve sides in the last preliminary round will qualify for the national draw,” part of the statement reads.
Teams that qualified for the national draw from the South are Zingwangwa United, Balaka, Ntopwa, Ndirande, Ntaja United and Mpondasi FC.
Central Region has Mbabzi United, Leyman Panthers, Santhe Admarc, Airborne Rangers and St Gabriel Zitha while Ekwendeni Hard knockers, Mayamiko Stars, Ekwaiweni Tafika Sports Academy, Iponga and Chilumba Barracks made it from the North.
Fam Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the draw will start with the round-of-32 where the top eight Super League teams as at the end of the 2022 season will be seeded.
“The teams are FCB Nyasa Big Bullets, Blue Eagles, Kamuzu Barracks, Mighty Mukuru Wanderers, Silver Strikers, Mafco, Moyale and Civil ServiceUnited. These teams will not face each other in this round. They will be put in one pot and drawn against the other 24 teams where we have the reaming eight Super League teams and the 16 regional leagues teams which will be in the other pot.
“However, during the draw involving the seeded teams, there will be another draw to determine the home teams in the matches while in the other draw, the home team will be determined by the team drawn first. After that, we will continue to do the draw for the round-of-16. The draw for quarterfinals will be done after the round-of-16 while that of the semifinals and the final will be done after the quarterfinal matches on dates to be announced later,” Zakazaka said.
Bullets are the cup’s holders after a 3-1 beating of their reserve side late last year.
