Africa-Press – Malawi. Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has until Monday to submit a home or alternative venue to host Malawi National Football Team matches in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers kicking off next month.
Fam is expected to conduct a pre-inspection exercise of Bingu National Stadium (BNS) on Sunday and Monday ahead of the qualifiers, which commence on May 30. The Flames will host Ethiopia on Match Day One at a venue yet to be communicated.
According to communication from Confederation of Africa Football (Caf), all member associations are required to submit proposed venues no later than April 25 2022.
’’With the objective of assessing the current state of all of the proposed venues and in order to ensure the use of quality stadia during the aforementioned group stage qualifying matches, the qualified national associations are requested to send [venue names] no later than April 25 2022,’’ reads part of Caf’s communication.
Fam must submit to Caf the stadium selected to host the home match on Day One or Two, whether the chosen venue has working floodlights according to Caf requirements to host nocturnal matches, name two available four or five-star hotels and also name the available airport.
Additionally, Caf reminded member associations that, in the event that the country does not have a Caf-approved stadium, the nation in question will have to play its home matches abroad in approved stadia.
’’In case you anticipate that your association does not have any stadium that qualifies to the minimum standards requested by Caf for this competition, you may submit to Caf, no later than April 25 2022, the name of the venue outside your territory to host the match, along with a hosting agreement letter from the association where the stadium is located,’’ reads the communication.
The Flames played all their home matches in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. Playing the matches away from home forced Fam to overspend on its budget.
Fam Licencing and Compliance Manager Casper Jangale said the association would submit the report on Monday. “We will submit the report after pre-inspection. We have chosen BNS as our home ground and we are hopeful that it will pass the test,” Jangale said.
Fam spent over K400 million during the World Cup qualifiers which included a R158, 000 fee (about K10.5million) per match for usage of Orlando Stadium.
In addition, the association spent about K27 million on air tickets. As a host association, Fam was also responsible for all match details including security.
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