HTD national finals June 3
The inaugural HTD National Beach Soccer Challenge finals are set to take place from June 3-4 along the shores of Lake Malawi in Salima District.
The dates and venue were announced during a draw conducted at HTD offices in Blantyre.
The K20 million-worth competition will see six teams from the country’s lakeshore districts battling for the ultimate prize.
Beach Soccer Association (BSA) president Gift Chimbalanga said HTD’s support has helped in improvement of the standards of the game in the country.
“What HTD and Football Association of Malawi [Fam] have done has taken our game to another level. We are no longer amateurs in this game. Our level of competitiveness has greatly improved as evidenced by the rising of the national beach soccer team from position 102 in the world to 56th. In Africa, we are on position six.
“All we want now is to qualify for the World Cup to be held in Dubai later this year. This is the fastest rising on the Fifa ranking and we believe there are better things to come with continued support coming from stakeholders,” Chimbalanga said.
HTD acting Head of Finance Jawad Imed said they are excited to be associated with the game.
“We should have held the finals about three months ago but Cyclone Freddy affected the dates. But everything is in place now and we cannot wait to see the teams in Salima. We know that these are the country’s best teams and competition will certainly be stiff. We expect to see highly spirited performances from the players. This is their time to play and fight for better results. We want to see them sharpening their skills so that we can assemble a team capable of qualifying for the forthcoming World Cup,” Imed said.
The draw saw three teams being pitted against each other in groups A and B.
Group A has Nkopola from Mangochi, Nkhata Bay’s Beach Eagles and Munali of Salima while Group B comprises Mangochi’s Nyasa, Deep Bay of Salima and Nkhata Bay side Chipala.
The winner of the competition will walk away with K3 million whereas the second-placed team will go home with K1 million. The team to finish third will pocket K500,000.
The tournament is expected to contribute towards promoting the country’s tourism as it will be played at one of the top tourist attraction sites in Africa.
HTD signed a two-year sponsorship with BSA and Football Association of Malawi to bankroll the competition.
Peter Fote is a Sports Journalist with huge experience in radio and Television reporting, production and presentation. He once worked with Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and is currently working for Times Media Group.
