Desperation for success has led Football Association of Malawi (Fam) to employ 13 coaches from 2010 to date, Malawi News Sport has the details.
However, all the coaches have been solely blamed on poor performance of the Malawi National Football Team, the Flames, while Fam and the government are left scot free in the mess created by themselves.
Details indicate that all the previous coaches have not lasted more than four years at Flames.
While Fam puts the blame on the coaches alone, some soccer analysts believe that the association did not exercise patience with coaches in the last 10 years compared to other countries in the region.
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Despite firing and hiring coaches willy-nilly in the last decade the results have not improved.
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The Flames remain whipping boys on the continent.
Malawi’s football standards keep going down. Others have attributed the dwindling standards to lack of developmental structures and poor administration of the game at large, which culminate in poor planning.
Worse still, most of the people running the game are not adding value.
Following Flames’ poor start to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers, after two-back-to-back defeats to Burundi (3-2) and Burkina Faso (3-1), Patrick Mabedi’s days as the team’s coach are slowly being numbered.
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Mabedi, who earned praise when he guided the team to the 2023 Cosafa Cup semi-finals for the first time in 20 years, was hired on a permanent basis after Romanian Mario Marinica was fired.
Fast forward Mabedi is on the chopping board.
Before the past 10 years, Kinnah Phiri is the only one who served for more than three years from 2008 to 2013.
He then guided the team to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Angola.
After the Kinnah-led technical panel which included Young Chimodzi Senior and late Jack Chamangwana, the association hired the late Eddington Ng’onamo with Patrick Mabedi and Ernest Mtawali as his assistants in February 2013.
But in July the same year, Fam hired Belgian Thom Santifiet on a short-term contract specifically for the match against Nigeria in which the Flames lost 2- 0 in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
Then, Chimodzi Senior was named care-taker coach from 2014 to 2015 and won the Cosafa Plate after beating Zambia 1-0 in South Africa.
Thereafter, Fam engaged Mtawali on a one-year contract in August 2015 with Burundian Nswazurimo Ramadhan as his assistant.
But Mtawali was replaced by Ramadhan on a temporary basis.
Then, Gerald Phiri Senior took over in 2017 before Belgian coach Ronny Van Geneugden was hand-picked by Fam on a two-year deal.
After two disastrous years in charge of the Flames, the Belgian was shown the exit door as Meck Mwase took over on an interim basis before he was named permanent coach.
While in charge of the Flames, Mwase guided the Flames to the 2021 Afcon finals in Cameroon.
However, Mwase was fired during the Fam Executive committee quarterly meeting held in Mangochi and replaced him with Marinica, who signed a one-year contract.
Mwase lost his job after five losses and one draw in six World Cup qualifiers.
Marinica was dismissed at the end of his contract. Mabedi could be the next victim.
Sports analyst George Chiusiwa said there are more problems to Flames woes that need serious attention.
“Is it really that we recruit coaches that are poorly equipped and capacitated technically and tactically? Is changing coaches the panacea to this disaster. We can regularly change gaffers for the team like we do with underwear but we will not address underlying challenges,’’ he said.
Mabedi has five wins, four draws and seven losses in 16 matches.
Fam First VicePresident Madalitso Kuyera, who is the chairperson of Fam technical sub-committee, said they will wait for the report from the technical panel.
“We will wait for a report from the technical panel on what has happened. We are not happy with the results of course,” Kuyera said.
Despite changing coaches almost every two years, the Flames have never won a trophy since 1988 when they won the East and Central Africa Challenge Cup.
National Football Coaches Association General Secretary Davie Mpima said there is a need to find lasting solutions to the Flames woes.
“All stakeholders have contributed to the Flames poor performance. We should not point fingers at each other but should find solutions,” Mpima said.
The Flames have qualified for Afcon finals in 1984, 2010 and 2021.
