Women’s football stalls
While Malawi is struggling to make a mark on the international stage in men’s football, women’s football in the country is also failing to develop following lack of support from the corporate world and other stakeholders.
While the sport seemed to have been showing signs of developing four years ago, women’s football is now stagnant and the future looks bleak.
Currently, there is no league in all the three regions, giving the players no platform to develop their skills.
There is also lack of enough competitions with the Fam Cup and the Donnas Eggs Trophies as the only reliable annual competitions.
National Women’s Football Committee (NWFC) chairperson, Severia Chalira, said the situation was bad since it would lead to the loss of talent in the country.
She observed that the exploits of Tabitha Chawinga in Sweden demonstrate that the country has good talent.
“It is very unfortunate that we are not making progress. Since losing the league sponsorship from President Peter Mutharika, no sponsor has come forth to support us. We have approached a lot of companies but only one company showed interest to sponsor the league in one region. Having no league in all the regions is detrimental to the growth of the sport,” she said.
Chalira added that her committee does not have enough funds to sponsor some developmental programmes.
“The funds we have now are for the Fam Cup only. We were expecting to have the Donnas Trophy earlier this year but it has been delayed. The players have been inactive this year,” she said.
Meanwhile, Fam’s technical director, John Kaputa, said his office was planning international matches for women’s football.
“We are working with the NWFC to have a national team this year. Even though there is no league, we have put in place coaches to identify players in all the regions through some of the competitions that take place in the districts,” he said.
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