The inaugural Castel Challenge Cup has been launched at Rumphi Stadium on Saturday as key stakeholders appealed for sanity in football matches.
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) organized different activities during the launch of the most expensive trophy in the country which will see champions walking away with a record K50 million.
Among activities on the day, there were matches as Thaboland FC of Rumphi district became first ever team to win a match in Castel Challenge Cup beating Vongo FC of the same district in their in a match that started at 12:30.
The two teams are among 816 participating teams at the district level country wide which FAM alongside regional and district committees divided into zonal groups where teams will be playing on league bases in the first round before 8 teams each district qualify to the second round which will be played on knockout basis to determine district champions.
Later on, there was another match between Chipolopolo FC who beat Songwe Boarders Stars 3-1 on post match penalties after a one all draw in regulation time, in a launch match at the Regional level.
The setup for the regional teams will see teams being divided into groups where they will produce top teams who will go through to the next level of knockout phase.
After the launch Football Association of Malawi through vice president Jabbar Alide was excited that the Cup is finally launched.
Alide further appealed to teams and soccer lovers to abide by football rules and regulations of the cup on the other hand refraining from non footballing behaviors.
“As FAM we are very happy with the Cup and we hope that it will open doors for local untapped talents and we believe that teams will behave while fighting for the top spot” said Alide.
The remarks by Alide comes barely few days after sponsors Castel Malawi through Northern Region Sales Manager Andrew Ngombende also called for fair play during matches.
“We are a big company and we could not be happy to be associated with violence and hooliganism so we wish to remind soccer lovers and teams to exercise fair play and accept results always” said Ngombende
Ngombende was speaking on Wednesday during the draw of the competition in the Northern Region where the General Secretary for Northern Region Football Masiya Nyasulu also concurred with him on refraining from violence.
Another Association which also called upon fair play is the Southern Region Football Association through chairman Raphael Humba who said: “We will not allow anyone to tarnish image of sponsor for this competition because at the end of the day they will withdraw their support and we will suffer as a country”
For the part of teams themselves Pofera Chinkhwasale General Secretary of Santhe Admarc who will participate at the regional level as well as owner for Ntcheu based Soccer City FC Solomon Butao, who will participate at the district level have assured us that they will take the fair play message to their supporters to avoid any sort of misbehaving.
