Football Association of Malawi ditches road travel plans
Football Association of Malawi has come to its senses and ditched plans to ferry the Malawi national football team by road to South Africa for Cosafa Cup.
Initially, Fam wanted to use a bus it got from South Africa Football Association (Safa) to travel to the rainbow nation for the Cosafa Cup.
But Fam’s Head of Finance and Administration, Christopher Mdolo, said after comparing the expenses, the association decided to let the team fly to South Africa.
Mdolo said travelling by road would cost the association about K38 million while flying straight to South Africa would be at K36 million.
The Flames will now fly to South Africa on Thursday by Malawian Airlines for the regional tournament where they face South Africa in a training match on Friday before playing Mozambique in the quarterfinals on Monday.
“It’s very expensive to go by bus as compared to flying. Travelling by road means you spend two days in transit and have to pay for accommodation for two nights as well,” Mdolo said.
“You can’t travel straight to South Africa with a team. You have to rest on the way and that will also increase the number of days and hence more expenses on allowances for players. Over and above, fatigue would also affect the team.”
Mdolo said the association had learnt a lesson from the Zambia trip where the Flames played in Lilongwe on the way back,” he said.
Meanwhile, Flames coach, Young Chimodzi, yesterday said he was confident that the Flames would have a successful tournament in Rustenberg where the mission is to win the competition for the first time in history.
“We are not going there to participate. We are going there to win. That is why we have incorporated foreign-based players to add strength to the team. The tournament will give us good preparations for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers therefore we are leaving no stone unturned,” he said.
Chimodzi said he was still waiting for the release of his captain Joseph Kamwendo who plays for TP Mazembe in DRC.
Gabadinho Mhango and Robert Ng’ambi are injury doubts while Harry Nyirenda will miss out through club engagements since his Black Leopards side will play in the South African League promotional play-offs.
Chimodzi has dropped some of the locally-based players from the squad that is in camp in Blantyre.
Some of the casualties are Victor Limbani, Ndaziona Chatsalira and Richard Chipuwa.
Chimodzi is expected to name his final squad for the tournament in two days’ time.
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