Minister of Youth and Sports Richard Chimwendo Banda is today set to meet the Malawi National Council of Sports and Football Association of Malawi (FAM) in Blantyre.

In an interview yesterday, the minister said the meetings are aimed at appreciating the two bodies’ plans and challenges.

He said: “It is about appreciating their strategic plans and implementation progress, the challenges they are facing and how they expect us to come in.

Chimwendo Banda: It is about touching base

“Suffice to say this is just the starting point. I want to touch base with all the associations affiliated to Sports Council. It is not only football, I will reach out to the others as well.”

Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said they look forward to their first meeting with the minister.

 He said: “It gives us an opportunity to interact with him and raise issues that may require his attention.

“We would also want to appreciate his expectations.”

FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said the meeting provides an opportunity to appraise the  minister on the plans they have put in place to ensure a successive Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification for the Flames.

“This will also be an opportune moment to brief him on the challenges faced in our quest to scale greater heights,” he said.

Irononically, the meeting with FAM comes after the association hinted at seeking the minister’s intervention on funding to enable the Flames participate in the 2022 African Nations Championship (Chan).

Last week, FAM announced its intention not to take part in the tournament due to inadequate funding.

But Nyamilandu has since  said Flames will still participate in Chan although they are yet to get communication from Sports Council on how much they have been allocated for the current financial year.

He said: “It’s now too late to withdraw from Chan. We just have to bite the bullet to avoid losing out and facing consequences of sanctions for late withdrawal.

“We have escalated our plight with the minister for his intervention. We are hoping government will bail us out.

“We have also embarked on a cost-cutting campaign while working on driving revenue from other potential sources of funding.”

The FAM president said they face a tall order as the K300 million allocation they usually get is not even sufficient for the Afcon qualifiers.

FAM submitted a K2.5 billion budget proposal to Sports Council, but Ntulumbwa said the allocation they got for all associations is K2.1 billion.

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