Domestic women’s football teams can breathe a sigh of relief after Football Association of Malawi (Fam) announced dates for the delayed 2023 National Women’s Championship.
Fam cleared the uncertainty surrounding this year’s tournament yesterday, when the association announced that the tournament would be played for one week from April 22 to 28 in Lilongwe.
Just like last year, 10 teams, three from each region, will take part in this year’s tournament. The best fourth team will be determined through play-offs to be played in two regions.
The first play-off will involve three teams, namely Civil Service Women (Centre), Ekwendeni Sisters (North) and Bvumbwe from the Southern Region and the matches are slated for this weekend at Mpira Village in Blantyre.
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Thereafter, there will be a second play-off involving Silver Strikers Ladies, Mighty Wanderers Queens, CY Sisters and the fourth-best team to determine the quarter-finalists.
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The second play-offs will take place in Lilongwe on April 22.
Six teams, namely defending champions Kukoma Ntopwa, MDF Lionesses, Ascent Soccer, FCB Nyasa Big Bullets Women, Moyale Sisters and MK Academy, have been seeded and will join the party in the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals will be played between April 23 and 24 before the semi-finals, which will be played on April 26.
The final will take place on April 28. Champions of this year’s competition will represent Malawi at the 2024 Caf Women’s Champions League Cosafa qualifier to be staged in Durban, South Africa.
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National Women’s Football Association General Secretary Lustica Gondwe said all is set for the finals.
“The teams have waited for so long and the teams are now ready to play the games,’’ Gondwe said.
On his part, Ntopwa owner Isaac Jomo Osman was happy that dates have been set.
“We are going to try our best to defend the title,” he said.
The champions at national level will pocket K8 million from K3 million whereas the runners-up will receive K4 million from K2 million. The third and fourth-placed team will now get K2 million and K1.5 million from K750,000 and K500,000, respectively.
On top of that, each of the 10 teams will get K1 million as subvention during the second play-offs and quarterfinals. Semi-finalists will pocket an additional K1 million.
