Domestic stakeholders have expressed differing views, with many being sceptical, about the local football calendar switch, which Football Association of Malawi (Fam) is set to implement starting with the forthcoming season.
This comes after Fam released the 2025 football calendar Tuesday.
The association has made changes to the local football calendar as it moves towards aligning it with the Confederation of African Football (Caf) in the near future.
According to a 2025 football calendar, the football season will kick off on March 29 with a Charity Shield match between TNM Super League champions Silver Strikers and Castel Challenge Cup winners Mighty Wanderers at a venue yet to be announced.
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The Charity Shield will immediately be followed by the kick off of the 2025 TNM Super League on April 5, 2025.
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The Airtel Top 8 will kick off in April.
But the 2025 football season would be concluded on February 28 with the Castel Challenge Cup final, just one week after the conclusion of the TNM Super League.
Currently, the football season starts in March and concludes in December.
Fam Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the association has embarked on a calendar switch to align it with Caf and most international leagues.
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“Our goal is to fully align it with Caf’s calendar by the start of the 2027/28 season,” Zakazaka said.
Following the calendar switch which will run up to February 2026, the 2026 football season is expected to start between May and July, and conclude in April 2027.
The 2027 football season is proposed to start in July and end in May 2028.
In reaction to the calendar switch, Silver Chief Executive Officer Patrick Chimimba said Fam should exercise caution especially on the conditions of the stadiums during the rainy season.
“We believe that Fam will properly scrutinise the match venues for the 2025 season. We are hoping that from the lessons, they will be able to come up with proper grounds that will be playable during the rainy season,’’ Chimimba said.
On his part, Wanderers Chief Executive Officer Panganeni Ndovi described the calendar switch as positive but said there would be consequences.
“This is a good move. But the major setback is lack of quality infrastructures that can host matches throughout the year. Most of the facilities are government owned so there is also a need to convince the owners to invest more so that the facilities are able to host matches during the rainy season,” Ndovi said.
Sports analyst Parry Chinyama said he had reservations on playing matches at the peak of the rainy season due to lack of proper infrastructures.
“Between November and February, our country is at the peak of receiving rains. Most of the grounds are normally waterlogged so how will we be able to counter this so that games are not disrupted,” he said.
According to the new calendar, the newly established National First Division League would be concluded between February 14 and 15, 2025.
The calendar has also included all Malawi National Football Teams assignments.
