The Malawi Senior National Football Team, the Flames, have participated in several competitions but have nothing to show on their shelf after failing to win any of the tournaments for the past 35 years.
While the Fifa World Cup and the Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) are unrealistic targets for the Flames, they have even failed to win the Cosafa Cup since it was introduced in 1997.
The last time Malawi won a major trophy was during the East and Central African Challenge (Cecafa) Cup in 1988 which means there have been 35 years of trophy drought.
Malawi won the Cecafa Cup three times.
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First it was in 1978 before defending it in 1979. Since 1988, the Flames have been a pale of their own shadows.
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Save for qualifying for the 2010 Afcon finals in Angola under the tutelage of Kinnah Phiri and the recent 2021 Afcon in which they reached the round-of-16 and two-back-to-back finals of the Cosafa Cup in 2002 under Kim Splidboel and 2003 under Alan Gillet, there is little hope for Flames to end trophy anytime soon.
The Flames have the luxury of celebrating the Cosafa Plate which they won in 2015.
For instance, it took Malawi 20 years to qualify for the semi-finals of the Cosafa Cup after three victories over Zambia (1-0), Seychelles and Comoros by 2-0 margins.
However, the Flames failed to make it to the Cosafa Cup final for the first time in 20 years.
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While the senior team has gone for 35 years without a trophy, the junior teams’ dry spell has hit 22 years.
The last time Malawi Under-17 Boys won the Cosafa Youth Championship on home soil was in 2001, and once they qualified for the World Cup in 2009.
The Under-20 and 23 have never won trophy in their age bracket.
But Under-20 qualified for Afcon finals in 1999.
This is in sharp contrast to neighbours Zambia, who won the Cosafa Senior Cup for a record seventh time, one above Zimbabwe.
For Zambia, they set the standards so high when they won the 2012 Afcon.
The Flames alongside Mozambique, Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Lesotho and eSwatini are teams that have never won the Cosafa Cup.
Angola and Namibia have won it thrice and once respectively.
However, some analysts have attributed Malawi’s failure to win a trophy in 35 years, to lack of poor leadership and lack of proper planning.
Former Flames midfielder Peterkins Kayira, who was part of the team that won the last trophy in 1988, said the country has ignored the foundation of football.
“We had established national football teams at all levels. But after the glory of 35 years ago we stopped that process and since we had very talented footballers we took it for granted that we will have stronger national teams in future. The downfall could only be noticed on results but not the process,’’ Kayira said.
Another Flames legend, Kinnah blamed Football Association (Fam) leadership for the downfall of Malawi football.
“Fam leadership does not support and believe in experienced local coaches who have done far much better with the national teams but he [Fam president] thinks foreign coaches are better than locals which is a very poor mindset from the leadership of Fam,’’ Kinnah said.
However, Fam president Walter Nyamilandu believes one day the Flames will bring success.
“The difference is the quality and level of professionalism. The bar is much higher now countries are investing significantly in the youth, clubs and national teams,” Nyamilandu said.
Malawi has never qualified for the Fifa World Cup and the Olympic Games.
Sports analyst Parry Chinyama said the standards have gone down due to poor planning.
“We neglected infrastructure and never invested in sports, instead we over relied on corporate world sponsorship,” he said.
The Flames have only qualified for the Afcon finals three times.
