Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has submitted a supplementary budgetary request of K299 million to Ministry of Youth and Sports for the Flames and  the Scorchers’ participation in the 2023 Africa Nations Championship (Chan)  and Cosafa Women’s Championship, respetively.

The Nation has established that FAM has asked for K201 million for the Flames and K98 million for the Scorchers.

FAM president Walter Nyamilandu confirmed submitting the request in an interview yesterday, saying they need a substantial amount to fulfil international fixtures in August and September.

Nyamilandu: We are struggling

He said: “This has come at a huge cost as we have depleted funds from operations and commercial.

“The funds have been diverted towards the Flames camping because we couldn’t afford to compromise Chan preparations.

“We also used the same funds to participate in Cosafa Cup and recently Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations.”

Nyamilandu said they are facing a huge financial burden to run the national teams since the  K200 million which they were allocated by government for the current financial year was exhausted in the Afcon qualifiers against Ethiopia and Guinea.

He said: “As a result, some of the critical programmes have been affected such as procurement of replica jerseys that is meant to replenish the market that has run dry.

“The plan is to recoup the funds once we have received complimentary funding for the Flames from government.

“At the moment, we are struggling to host Flames at Chiwembe Techinal Centre and to pay their allowances, let alone book flights to Mozambique.”

However, Nyamilandu said despite facing a race against time, they remain hopeful that the request for additional funding will be favourably considered.

He said: “It is this trust that made us take the risk of using funds from operations and commercial.”

Malawi National Council of Sports spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa confirmed receipt of FAM’s request.

He said: “I can confirm about the request for Flames additional funding, but I am not sure about the request for the women’s national team’s funding. I will have to check.”

The Flames will host Mozambique’s Mambas in the first leg of the final Chan qualifier on August 27 while the return leg is slated for a week later while the Cosafa Women’s Championship  is scheduled for August 31 to September 11 in South Africa.

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