* Whose semifinals of the 2026 edition are scheduled for in August
* The Bullets, who lost twice to the Nomads in league encounters as well as in the NBS Bank Charity Shield 2026, managed to beat their arch rivals 2-1 in the FDH Bank Premiership
By Duncan Mlanjira
The Airtel Top 8 2026 will kick off with two quarterfinal first leg matches at Bingu National Stadium on Saturday, June 13, starting with an encounter between Blue Eagles and Civil Service United at 14h00 before Nyasa Big Bullets take on Ekhaya FC at 17h00.
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The following day, June 14, with Mighty Wanderers will host Creck Sporting Club at Zomba Stadium as the third quarterfinal while Silver Strikers will be at home against Karonga United at Silver Stadium as the fourth match.
Thus winners of quarterfinals 1 (Blue Eagles v Civil Service United) will face winners of match 4 (Silver Strikers v Karonga United) with the second winners (Nyasa Big Bullets v Ekhaya FC) taking on winners of Mighty Wanderers v Creck Sporting Club.
The second legs are expected to be completed on July 11 and 12 with away goal and aggregate score being the building rules of who goes through.
The quarterfinal pairings first leg hosts were determined to be for the teams that finished in the top four positions in 2025 league season — champions Wanderers, runners-up Bullets, 3rd-placed Silver Strikers and Blue Eagles (4th).
In the return legs, Ekhaya will host the Bullets at Mpira Stadium with Civil Service United facing Blue Eagles at Civo Stadium — both on July 11.
The following day, July 12, Creck Sporting will host Wanderers at Aubrey Dimba Stadium in Mchinji, while Karonga United will welcome Silver Strikers at Karonga Stadium.
The semifinals will be played as single fixtures, while the final is scheduled for August 29 at a venue to be confirmed.
Nyasa Big Bullets proved to be much superior giants when they retained the Airtel Top 8 2025 when they beat the same opponents they faced in 2024, Silver Strikers and winning it for the third consecutive editions — which was their 4th title in eight years since its inception in 2017.
And it was also a tremendous achievement for coach, Peter Mponda, who returned to the Bullets after he led Silver Strikers to their first TNM Super League title in 11 years but failed to clinch the Airtel Top 8 2024 against the Bullets — then coached by Kalisto Pasuwa.
Prior to taking over at Silver, Mponda was Pasuwa’s assistant and when he left, Mponda returned to his childhood team after one season with the Bankers — but with a bitter-sweet departure having not won a cup competition with the Capital City giants but just the league title.
The Bullets won the title in 2021, 2023, 2024 and while Silver Strikers clinched the inaugural championship in 2019. The other winners are Blue Eagles in 2018 and Mighty Wanderers in 2022.
Last season Golden Boot award went to Silver’s Festus Duwe with three goals, who was not featured in the final due to injury. Duwe’s three goals as top scorer was way behind that for the all-time Airtel Top 8 scoring record by Nigerian Babatunde Adepoju, who netted an unmatched nine goals across his appearances, including an incredible eight-goal haul during the 2021 campaign.
Since its inception in 2017, the Airtel Top 8 has traditionally seen low-scoring Golden Boot winners as the inaugural award went to Khumbo Ng’ambi in 2017 with three goals, followed by Joseph Kamwendo (two goals in 2018), Khuda Muyaba (two goals in 2019), Lanjesi Nkhoma (two goals in 2023, shared), and Chinsinsi Maonga (three goals in 2024).
Festus Duwe