22 years of no CAF progress

Malawi’s elite football teams will continue to struggle in African continental club competitions unless they heavily invest in squad depth, build the capacity of technical officials and high-standard facilities, football analysts have warned.

So far, no Malawian elite league club has made it to the group stages of a continental competition since FCB Nyasa Bullets did it in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League 22 years ago.

Reigning national champions Mighty Wanderers are the latest casualties as on Sunday they suffered a 6-1 humiliation at the hands of their Tanzanian hosts Simba Sports Club (SC) in the first preliminary round second-leg in Dar es Salaam to go down 7-1 on aggregate as they lost 1-0 in the first-leg at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe earlier.

The last time they also entered the continental elite club tournament in 2017, the Nomads failed to go beyond the preliminary stage when AS Vita booted them out with a 6-1 beating on aggregate.

Wanderers goalkeeper Dalitso

Khungwa concedes one of the six

Simba SC goals. | Simba SC

In an interview, football analyst Parry Chinyama yesterday said the problem with Malawi football is that we running the top-flight league as an amateur competition.

“We don’t have proper structures for producing players good enough for international competitions. We tend to rush things,” he said.

“For starters, our teams’ technical capacity is far below standard. You will notice that when an expatriate coach comes into the local league, they win trophies at the expense of their local counterparts.”

When Zimbabwean coach Kalisto Pasuwa came, he won the top league title with Bullets, while Zambian Daniel Kabwe won the FDH Bank Cup with Silver Strikers and Englishman Mark Harrison triumphed in the Airtel Top 8 with Wanderers.

“From the word go, we need to have proper facilities for both matches and training sessions and then try to build the capacity of our coaches so that they can instil psychological discipline in players,” said Chinyama.

While agreeing with Chinyama on the need to build the capacity of coaches, another analyst Twaha Chimuka said if local clubs want to excel on the international stage, they should look beyond building teams for the domestic league.

“Most clubs build their teams to play in the local league and not international competitions. If you look at clubs such as Simba and South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns, they assemble teams to succeed on the international stage,” he said.

“If our clubs are to excel, they need to follow the template, that is, build strong squads and invest in the team. Buy good players from other countries but not the rejects that flood our league and get high-standard coaches that are well-versed with the scientific demands of the game.”

Wanderers interim head-coach McDonald Mtetemera attributed their defeat to Simba SC to lack of discipline among his charges, a development he said contributed to their poor performance.

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