The Football Association of Malawi (FAM) is expected to receive USD250,000 (K294, 293, 750) from the World football governing body, FIFA for an inclusive Football academy set to be opened at Luwinga Technical Centre in Mzuzu.
This has been revealed by FAM President Walter Nyamilandu during a joint press conference with FIFA’s director member of football Associations, Gelson Fernandez who is among 10 delegates from FIFA and the Agence Francaise de Developmente (AFD), arrived in the country on Tuesday for a series of meetings with various stakeholders in readiness for the establishment of Luwinga Technical Centre.
Nyamilandu said the whole amount will be divided into two halves to accommodate two years of FIFA’s support towards the Luwinga Technical Centre project.
“They will hold our hand for the next two years with the funding of 150,000 USD (K170, 576, 250) in the first year and 100,000 USD (K113, 717, 500) in the next year” he said
According to Nyamilandu, the targeted age bracket for this cohort will be under 14’s and 16’s.
“Cohort will be looking at Under 14 and Under 16, you give those players 10 years and if we do our things correctly without shortcuts, if we bring best players and right coaching, we should be able to produce good national team”
“We will scrutinize our progress after four years when they reach Under17 level, that will give us hope that we are on the right track then Under 20 and progress into the senior national team” he added
Nyamilandu further said he believe that the coming in of Luwinga Technical Centre Academy will help to produce high quality talent that can excel at international level.
He further commended the job that has been done by some local academies despite hailing the new FIFA Academy, saying it will be the special one.
“We’ve seen west Africans excelling in African Nations Cup and World Cup because they have excellent talent and we’ve always believe that academy is one way how we can bridge this gap”
“We’ve already seen alot of progress with some of the local academies that have been set here, we had Sure stream, we now have Ascent Academy from that they have done in a short period”
“But now we are talking about a fully fledged football Academy which will be inclusive players staying together, learning, education, playing football and be taught how to grow up in a well balanced life style so we are excited about this project which will transform the landscape of Malawi football”
On the part of FIFA, Gelson Fernandez said they selected Malawi together with Mauritania and Djibouti for a number of reasons including quality of administration in the three FA’s.
“We opened applications to the whole continent but Malawi together with Mauritania and Djibouti were selected due to their quality of administration, stability within their federations and they showed their potential in as far as football development is concerned” said Fernandez
However, Fernandez said he wants to see results, success and proud people on young football through the project.
The programme is intended to make use of football’s ability to teach life skills such as commitment and teamwork. It aims to prepare academy players to be future citizens, bearing in mind that only a tiny proportion will become professional footballers, and broaden their economic and professional horizons through football, empower them and ensure their employability.
