Football Association of Malawi (FAM) is keeping its fingers crossed that the Ministry of Youth and Sports will provide about K627 million for Africa Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers.

The association, which exhausted its K200 million annual funding,  has requested for K627 million additional funding for its two-legged qualifiers against either Zambia or Mozambique.

Malawi’s Flames qualified of the Chan qualifiers second round following the suspension of their opponents Zimbabwe.

The association also needs K100 million for the Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers.

The Flames in action at the Cosafa Cup in Durban, South Africa

The beach soccer national team beat Tanzania 3-2 to take a goal advantage into the second leg to be played on August 7.

FAM director of finance Christopher Mdolo confirmed that they had re-submitted their request for additional funding for the national teams to the ministry through the Malawi National Council of Sports.

He said: “For Chan qualifiers the budget is at K627 million while for the beach soccer Afcon  it is at K100 million.”

But in an interview yesterday,  Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa  said they are yet to get the request.

He said: “Once we get the request, we will respond accordingly.”

FAM almost pulled out of Chan and Cosafa tournaments due to financial challenges, but Minister of Youth and Sports Richard Chimwendo Banda assured that funding will be made available.

FAM submitted a K134 million  budget for the Cosafa Cup participation, but government only released K20 million.

Government is yet to pay expenses from the just-ended regional competition and Ntulumbwa said Sports Council, FAM and Ministry of Sports will meet to discuss how to settle the Cosafa Cup expenses.

Last week, Flames coach Mario Marinica said he had proposed to FAM that the Flames should start their preparations on August 7.

He said: “The programme has already been prepared and the plan is to train for the first three days of the week, from Monday to Wednesday for three weeks.

FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said while they welcomed the coach’s programme, funding could pose a challenge.

He said: “An early bird catches the worm. We have a tough assignment ahead, so we need to be well-prepared.”

Zambia and Mozambique played out a goalless on Sunday in Maputo on Sunday and the second leg will be played on Saturday.

The second round first legs will be played on August 26 with the second leg scheduled a week later.

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