* Airtel Malawi’s commitment is a result of top-notch administrators who always practice discipline in terms of transparency and accountability which makes them to deliver good results as they make the competition to be unique and attractive to the soccer fans each and every year
By Victor Singano Jnr
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has expressed profound enthusiasm following the announcement by Airtel Malawi Plc’s continued sponsorship of the glamorous Airtel Top 8 tournament, a partnership which will be entering into season 9 in this year.
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FAM president Fleetwood Haiya made the remarks during the 2025 Airtel Top 8 Season 8 Zamadolo Awards ceremony in Blantyre where the sponsors announced that they are committed to continue partnering with FAM in order to help the association’s agenda of transforming the game becoming a reality by developing football in the country.
Haiya added that he considers Airtel Malawi’s commitment as a result of a top-notch administrators who always practice discipline in terms of transparency and accountability which makes them to deliver good results — emphasising that the leading mobile telecommunications service provider make the competition unique and attractive to the soccer fans each and every season.
Fleetwood Haiya
“The excitement we have today is very special because sponsorships are hard to secure,” Haiya said. “As such we want to thank Airtel Malawi for the great decision they have made by considering to remain in the game and make our partnership going.
“As FAM, we promise to give more value to Airtel Malawi by helping their brand to be visible and ensure that it experiences improvement in terms of commercial.”
Airtel MD Aashish Dutt
On his part, Airtel Malawi Managing Director, Aashish Dutt announced that they got prompted to maintain the sponsorship having noted that the competition is able to meet their expectations of connecting to Malawians digitally through football, creating business opportunities, building unity among people and promoting talent for young footballers.
“The journey in the competition has always been fantastic from the first edition up until now, and the last year’s tournament was more exciting in all the aspects such as level of competitiveness, patronage, and revenue.
“It is our hope that the competition will continue bringing good things and we promise the football fraternity to expect more surprises in terms prize money and other initiatives in the next edition,” Dutt said.
Nyasa Big Bullets won their 4th Airtel Top 8 title after beating Silver Strikers 4-3 on penalties after playing out to a 1-1 draw in regulation time of the 2025 edition’s final.
The Golden Boot winner was Silver Strikers’ Festus Duwe, who was also nominated for Player of the Tournament alongside Nyasa Big Bullets’ Maxwell Gasten Phodo and Blessings Mpokera, which went to Mpokera.
Since its inception in 2017, Nyasa Big Bullets have won the Airtel Top 8 four times, first clinching it in 2021, before claiming it in back to back in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The runners-up Silver Strikers were the inaugural champions in 2017 and won it again in 2019 while with one title each to their name are Blue Eagles (2018) and Mighty Wanderers (2022).
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