Bushiri’s Goshen City unveils K21 million sponsorship for FAM Women’s National Championship

* Spoils Malawi Scorchers with K10 million for winning the COSAFA Women’s Championship last year

* National Championship winners to pocket K8 million; runners-up K4 million; 3rd-place K2 million and K1.5 million for 4th-placed

Maravi Express

Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, through his Goshen City investiment, yesterday handed over K21 million sponsorship to be used for the 2023 Goshen City Women’s National Championship to take place in Lilongwe next week.

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A report by Fam.mw says the handover took place at Goshen offices in Lilongwe where the Malawi National Women’s national football team were also rewarded with K10 million as a token of appreciation for winning Confederation of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) Women’s Championship last year.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) brought along the COSAFA Women’s Championship for Bushiri’s appreciation as Goshen City sponsored Scorchers’ trip to the tournament with a package of K29 million.

Fam.mw quotes Prophet Bushiri as saying he was proud to be associated with the success stories of women’s football in the country.

FAM president Fleetwood Haiya hailed Goshen City for fulfilling the promise, saying this will help to take the game to the next level: ’’We promise Goshen that the investment in football will not go in vain.

“We will make sure that we give them value for their investment,’’ said Haiya, who was accompanied, by among others, National Women’s Football Association president, Adellaide Migogo — who was relieved that the championship will be played after it was earlier postponed.

According to FAM, the new dates for the championship — which will attract 10 teams — will be announced soon, whose format for this year has changed from the previous group stage to knockout competition; starting with the second play offs.

In the second play-offs, Silver Strikers Ladies will face CY Sisters whereas Civil will meet Mighty Wanderers Queens.

Two teams from the second-play-off will join six seeded teams in the quarterfinals in which defending champions Kukoma Ntopwa will face runners-up Ascent Soccer while Nyasa Big Bullets Women will face Malawi Defence Force (MDF) Lionesses.

In another quarter-final, Moyale Sisters will face either Silver or CY Sisters. MK Academy will face Civil or Wanderers Queens in another quarterfinal.

Each of the ten teams will get K1 million as subvention during the quarterfinals while semi-finalists will pocket an additional K1 million.

Champions of the FAM National Women shall represent Malawi at the 2024 CAF Women’s Champions League COSAFA qualifier, which was participated for last year’s edition by Ntopwa FC by virtue of being winners of the 2022 edition.

Ntopwa at the CAF COSAFA qualifier

Ntopwa gained rich experience and exposure as they were pitted against the best in the COSAFA region — grouped together with defending champions then, Green Buffaloes of Zambia alongside Botswana’s Double Action Ladies and Lesotho Defence Force.

The other group B had Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa); Olympic de Moroni (Comoros); Costa do Sol (Mozambique) and Young Buffaloes (eSwatini).

In their opening match, they drew 1-1 with Lesotho Defence Force in which they had led from the 45th minute through Vanessa Chikupira  only to give in with four minutes to full time — having missed a lot of chances including a penalty.

They exited the tournament following their 0-4 loss to Botswana’s Double Action Ladies but the international experience and exposure was taken note of by Ntopwa’s coach, James Sangala attested that there were a number of lessons that were drawn from the championship.

“Our girls are good but are not strong enough like the other teams,” he told Fam.mw after the exit. “As we go back home, we will look at our recruitment plan to have players who are physically strong.

“This is a big stage that needs experienced players and we hope our girls will go back home differently having seen how tough the competition is at international level and obviously, we will come back stronger next time.”—Reporting by Fam.mw and edited by Maravi Express

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