Confederation of African Football (Caf) has shifted the 2024 Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier first leg encounter between Burundi and Malawi from Saturday to Monday.
The development comes in the wake of Malawi’s failure to travel to Bujumbura, Burundi, on Tuesday due to logistical challenges.
The challenges have since been resolved and the team will travel tomorrow.
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) announced that Caf made the change after the Burundi Football Federation accepted Malawi’s request to shift the qualifier.
The Malawi squad could not start off midweek as it had not secured Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) layover visas in time.
In the initial arrangement, the team was expected to spend a night in Goma, DRC, on Wednesday before connecting to Bujumbura on Thursday.
It will now fly to Nairobi, Kenya, tomorrow before connecting to Bujumbura on Sunday morning.
Fam Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka thanked the hosts for understanding the situation.
“After missing the flight on Tuesday, the only other option we had was to travel on Friday and arrive on the match day. So we took up the matter with our Burundi counterparts and negotiated with them on changing the day of the match.
“We are very grateful that they were kind enough to accept our request and instructed Caf to change the dates. We thank them very much for their kind gesture,” Zakazaka said.
Malawi coach Willy Kumilambe welcomed the change, saying it will give his charges more time to prepare for the match.
“The initial travel arrangement would have seen us spending two nights in transit before getting to Bujumbura, which was quite tiresome. So we are happy with the new arrangement, which will take us just one night to be in Bujumbura.
“It is not good for the team to spend a lot of time travelling before finally arriving at the destination. We are now assured of enough time to rest and we cannot complain. We are now back in Salima for camping and our preparations are on track,” Kumilambe said.
Malawi will host Burundi for the second leg at Sunbird Livingstonia in Salima District on Saturday next week.
The overall winner between Malawi and Burundi will qualify for the Beach Soccer Afcon finals to be staged in Egypt later this year.
Malawi will be hoping for back-to-back qualifications after their maiden appearance in Vilankulo, Mozambique, some two years ago, when they finished seventh.
In March this year, Malawi returned to the Cosafa Beach Soccer Championship and won bronze after beating Saudi Arabia 5-4 at South Beach Arena in Durban, South Africa.
