Football Association of Malawi (Fam) President Fleetwood Haiya has said his desire is to build a strong foundation for Malawi football so that all the national teams qualify for international tournaments.
Haiya disclosed this on SuperSport popular sports talk show ‘Soccer Africa’ on Thursday night.
The Flames failed to qualify for the delayed 2023 Afcon finals held in Ivory Coast after poor showing under the tutelage of Romanian Marian Mario Marinica.
While the qualifiers for the 2025 Afcon finals to be staged in Morocco are set to start later this year, Haiya said his leadership is focusing on long-term solutions for Malawi football.
He said his focus in the next two years will be to make sure that the Flames qualify for the 2027 edition to be hosted by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
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“To be honest, every Malawian would want to see the team winning games. For now, let us forget about winning. Let us create a team which is sustainable. I can assure you that if we build a strong foundation, the Flames and all the national teams will be qualifying for each and every edition. Currently, we can fight to qualify but will happen next, we are not going to qualify. Then, we will qualify after 10 years, which is not sustainable.
“We want to create a path that every edition of the Flames should qualify for. For now, we are playing in the World Cup qualifiers and we are in a group that we can qualify but I do not want to promise Malawians that the Flames will qualify for World Cup. But in 2027, it is a must for Malawi to qualify for Afcon finals. I have got two years to make Malawi ready to qualify for the finals,” Haiya said.
The Flames have only qualified for Afcon finals thrice in 1984 in Ivory Coast, 2010 in Angola and 2021 in Cameroon which was played in 2022. Malawi reached the round of 16 of the delayed 2021 Afcon finals for the first time in the history.
However, the Flames have never qualified for the World Cup finals since its inception. Again, Malawi has never won the Cosafa Cup despite reaching the finals twice in 2002 and 2003.
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They won East and Central Challenge Cup (Cecafa) in 1978,1979 and 1988. This means the Flames have failed to win a trophy in 36 years.
While the senior men’s team has gone 36 years without a trophy, Under-17 Boys last won Cosafa Youth Championship on home soil in 2001, and once qualified for the World Cup in 2009.
The Under-20 and 23 teams have never won any trophy in their age bracket. But U-20 qualified for Afcon finals in 1999.
Meanwhile, Haiya also disclosed the Scorchers will be getting the same game bonuses with their men’s counterparts as one way of motivating them.
At present, there are disparities in terms of game bonuses for the Flames and Scorchers players.
The Flames get K500,000 for a win in World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers and K300,000 for a win at Cosafa Cup. The players get half the amounts for the drawn matches.
On the part of Scorchers, the players get K200,000 for a win at Cosafa Cup.
However, Haiya said there are many success stories in women’s football which means the game deserves the same support the men’s teams get.
Fam gets an annual subvention from government through Malawi National Council of Sports for national team activities.
Spokesperson for Ministry of Youth and Sports Macmillan Mwale welcomed Fam’s idea.
