Regional Leagues to revert to old format, says FAM President, Haiya

Football Association of Malawi President, Fleetwood Haiya said the Association is working in collaboration with the regional associations to revert the leagues to the old format.

Regional Leagues changed their format to Cluster format due to Covid 19 but Haiya said the leagues should revert to their old “league” format.

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He made the remarks on Sunday in Machinga during the launch of the Southern Region Football League at the Michongwe Ground.

“We changed to cluster format because of COVID-19, and now want to go back. We will start this next season but the newly constituted regional league committee will guide us on what to do for the teams to prepare,” he said.

Haiya added that there should be uniformity in all three regions in terms of the number of teams participating.

“For example, in the Southern Region, we have 24 teams, in other regions, they have 16 teams, we want to have uniformity,” he added.

The League kicked off yesterday and Ntaja United claimed a 3-2 win over Red Lions while Cobbe Barracks beat Ndirande Stars. Superfet suffered a 2-1 defeat while Balaka FC and Changalume Barracks shared spoils after a 1-all draw. Mangochi All Stars played a barren stalemate against Nyambadwe United.

Football Association of Malawi are working on introducing a National league for the lower leagues in order to produce stronger teams to compete in the elite league.

Southern Region Football League Chairperson, Raphael Humba commended FAM for the decision.

“We are always ready to receive the decision because our aim is to develop football in Malawi. We are always working on FAM’s behalf and we will embrace the decision made by the Association to transform the game,” he said.