FMB sets hype for national finals
With less than two days before the national finals of the FMB Under-20 Youth Football League in Zomba, the league’s sponsors Wednesday set the hype by unveiling brand new FMB-branded football jerseys for the finalists.
The bank unveiled the jerseys during a press briefing held at FMB headquarters in Blantyre where there was also a semi-final draw for the finals.
The draw pitted defending champions Fish Eagles against Dedza Police Youth in the first semi-final Thursday.
Mangochi Police Reserve will meet Disciples FC in the second semi-final later in the day.
The final will be played on Saturday at Zomba Community Centre, but it would be preceded by a mini-tournament for Under-14 teams that reached the semifinals of Fam Under-14 schools tournament.
Some K750,000 is up for grabs this year, and the national champions will receive an extra K300,000 at the district level and a K300,000-worth set of uniforms.
The runners-up will get K500,000, a set of uniforms and K300,000 district prize money.
The teams will also have their transportation, food and accommodation costs covered by the league’s administration.
FMB’s head of marketing, Sylvia Mataka, said the bank was pleased with this season’s competition, which included three new districts to take the tally of participating districts to nine.
The new districts are Mchinji, Mangochi and Karonga.
“It is a proud moment for us. It has been a really great season. We are proud that this year it has been well-contested. This year, we increased the sponsorship to K20 million not by default, but because we are celebrating 20 years of doing business in Malawi. This is a way of giving back to the community which has supported us throughout,” she said.
“I believe that the teams that made it deserve to be in the final therefore we expect to see exciting action during the finals. The kids have really worked hard to make it therefore we wish them all the best. May the best team win.”
National Youth Football Association (NYFA) chairperson, Mabvuto Missi, said all had not been rosy this season.
“We had some hiccups this season especially on the unavailability of football grounds. There were also some cases of age-cheating especially in the new districts. But, we are happy that we have managed to rise through the challenges to make it through to the finals,” he said.
Missi added that the qualification of a Mangochi-based team for the national finals was an epitome of the league’s main objective.
“That really shows that we have a lot of talent in the districts. We want to unearth that talent so that it should contribute to Malawi football especially at the national team level. We already have our products playing for the national team,” he said.
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