The Malawi National Football Team will start preparing for the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers next week.
This means the Flames will be in camp for six days before they host Burundi at Bingu National Stadium (BNS) in Lilongwe on September 5.
The Flames will travel to Burkina Faso five days later.
Football Association of Malawi (Fam) Vice President Madalitso Kuyera said the team would no longer be in camp outside the Fifa calendar window.
“This is in line with the Fifa and domestic calendar. The fixture is congested and, as such, we do not want to disturb the domestic calendar,” Kuyera said.
Kuyera said, all things being equal, the Flames would regroup on Saturday next week after TNM Super League mid-week matches.
“We are happy that the Super League of Malawi (Sulom) accepted our request to reschedule the matches in midweek to give ample time to the Flames to prepare for the matches,” he said.
This comes few weeks after Flames coach Patrick Mabedi proposed that the team holds a prolonged camp.
However, the proposal was not approved.
Mabedi was not readily available for his comment Wednesday.
The Flames will also face Senegal back-to-back in October.
The qualifiers will, all things being equal, be concluded in November this year.
In other Group L fixtures, Burundi will host Senegal at BNS next month.
Top two teams in the group will advance to the Afcon finals, to be staged in Morocco next year.
The Flames will be hoping to qualify for the Afcon finals after missing the 2023 edition, which saw hosts Ivory Coast winning the title.
Meanwhile, sports analyst Sherry Msuku has said the Flames should prepare well for the matches.
“We can qualify if we prepare well for the matches. We also need to utilise home ground advantage,” he said.
Malawi last qualified for the finals in 2021 in Cameroon and went on to reach the round-of-16 stage for the first time but lost 2-1 to Morocco.
Overall, the Flames have qualified for the Afcon finals three times; that is, in 1984, 2010 and 2021.
Philip Nyoka 3 months ago
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