Malawi Sports Council advises FA from taking football supporters to Zimbabwe
Malawi National Council of Sports has advised Football Association of Malawi (Fam) from facilitating that supporters should follow the national football team to Zimbabwe to cheer the Flames in their almost a formality 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match to be played on Sunday.
Both Fam President and his Commercial & Marketing Director Limbani Cliff Matola confirmed the development, saying Sports Council advised that much as it would be great and ideal to have a lot of Malawians cheering and supporting their beloved Flames in Zimbabwe, it is equally important to exercise travel precaution in light of reported insecurities on some sections of the road to Zimbabwe through Mozambique.
There are reports that there is some civil warfare in some parts of Mozambique and thus Fam has been advised to consider the security concern.
“As Fam, we take this guidance from government, through Sports Council, very seriously as protection of life is paramount and a very key pillar in the game of football,” Matola said.
He also advised the supporters to take this issue seriously by not taking any risks of going to Zimbabwe through Mozambique on their own.
Ealier, Matola said they decided to organise the trip in response to numerous requests from the supporters because it became apparently clear that with the overwhelming interest that they were receiving, the patriotic supporters would still go ahead to travel to Zimbabwe even without the FA coming in to support their initiative.
The supporters were expected to contribute MK30,000 for the return trip which included free entry tickets to the match but they were supposed to fend for themselves in terms of food and accomodation.
Zimbabwe lead the Group L with eight points, followed by Swaziland and Guinea, who tie on five points.
Malawi have two points from two draws against Guinea and Swaziland.
If the Flames win their two remaining matches, against Zimbabwe on Sunday and the last against Swaziland and Zimbabwe go on to lose their last match against Guinea, they will tie at 8 points.
But should Guinea win their remaining games they will have 11 points. If they will draw with Swaziland and beat Zimbabwe, they will have nine points.
It’s really a tall order for the Flames to think that some miracle can happen from the other contestants of dropping points.
Perhaps, what they can achieve is to beat the Flames and salvage some pride like what Fam president Walter Nyamilandu said on Tuesday when the team received a timely funding of K50 million from official sponsors Carlsberg for the Zimbabwe game as well as for the Cosafa.
He urged the youthful Flames squad to fight their lungs out and defeat Zimbabwe to boost their morale ahead of the Cosafa tournament.
How they stand:
P W L D GF GA GD Pts
1. Zimbabwe 4 2 0 2 8 3 5 8
- Swaziland 4 1 1 2 5 8 -3 5
- Guinea 4 1 1 2 4 4 0 5
- Malawi 4 0 2 2 4 6 -2 2
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