* Follows FAM’s and Marinica mutual consent not to enter into negotiations for renewal of his contract
* Urged FAM to keep Marinica’s backroom staff to finish the remaining AFCON qualifiers against Guinea and Ethiopia
* The COSAFA tournament is just around the corner and the team will have to regroup in the next coming weeks
* We need a permanent coach who can start to build from the tournament
By Duncan Kaonga, Correspondent
As reports indicate that Football Association of Malawi (FAM) is considering hiring Zimbabwean Kalisto Pasuwa to guide the Flames in their remaining two Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers against Guinea and Ethiopia, football experts advises FAM to exercise patience when picking the next head coach.
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This follows the decision by FAM to relieve Romanian, Mario Marinica by mutual consent not to enter into negotiations for renewal of his contract as head coach after its expiry on April 30 following the 0-6 loss against Egypt in back to back AFCON qualifiers (0-2 in Cairo and 0-4 in Lilongwe in under four days.
During his spell, Marinica has had a poor run of results that included failing to deliver at the Confederation of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) tournament where he only managed one win and struggling in the 2023 AFCON qualifiers Group D in which he only managed one win and lost three games in a roll.
One of the county’s re-knowned football expert, Dan Makiyi applauded FAM for not renewing Marinica’s contact, saying it made the right decision but urged FAM to either keep Marinica’s backroom staff to finish the remaining games against Guinea and Ethiopia in the AFCON qualifiers or settle for a permanent coach.
“Fam has to play its cards well,” Makiyi said. “The COSAFA tournament is just around the corner and the team will have to regroup in the next coming weeks as we need a permanent coach who can start to build from the tournament.”
Dan Makiyi
He added that after the COSAFA, the Flames finish with the AFCON qualifiers and from these two top engagements, the next head coach can be assessed what he has on offer for the team.
For the past decade, the Flames have had almost 19 coaches, which Makiyi says FAM needs to have patience with coaches to yield their desired results.
“When picking a national team coach, their track record should be the priority,” he said. “We should pick someone who is consistent with the results and also we should borrow a leaf from other countries where a coach, who is showing progress, is given more years to implement their work.
“So, FAM needs to pick someone whom they should assess if he has a good track record and can deliver the desired results.”
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On Saturday, FAM sub-technical committee chaired by Suzgo Ngwira proposed current Nyasa Big Bullets head coach, Kalisto Pasuwa to come in as an interim coach for the national team.
Pasuwa’s impressive record in the country and in his native country, Zimbabwe prompted the committee to recommend him.
FAM president, Walter Nyamilandu said they will consult Ministry of Sports, Malawi National Council of Sports and technical committee to map the way forward as far as hiring another coach is concerned.
Marinica replaced Meck Mwase who had steered the team to qualify for the AFCON finals in Cameroun where the Flames finished in the Round of 16 for the first time ever.
Writing on his Facebook page, football analyst David Kanyenda opined that “Flames is for Malawians [and] this is non negotiable. “I totally oppose the idea of naturalization of foreigners for purposes of playing for Flames.
“It’s a big NO for me! I want to win with Malawian players who have at least a biological connection with the country. I’d rather lose with Malawian players than win with foreigners masquerading as locals.”
Babatunde
He said this after reports that Nigerian Babatunde Adepoju is being touted to be naturalized as a Malawian in order to be conspired for the national team.
“I don’t want Babatunde any where near my Flames,” Kanyenda said. “Spare us that indignity, please. Of course, the FA should not even be approaching Baba at all. It’s an indictment of their youth development structures — more like they are admitting failure to groom local talent.
“And even upon being approached, Baba cannot turn down Flames offer — after all he’s a fortune seeker. He’s struck gold and he will happily accept to play for Malawi because he has no chance to play for his mother country Nigeria at all.
“Better select and groom Zebron Kalima or Lanjesi Nkhoma or other youthful locals. Or pursue the likes of [Scotland based] Kieran Ngwenya, who has direct and clear Malawian roots.
Kieran Ngwenya wasn’t been considered by Marinica
“We should never encourage the FA to take shortcuts by undermining local talent. If they want taller players then let the development structures scout for players with such physical qualities.”
Former Flames star striker, Esau Kanyenda also made the same suggested of proper scouting of talent, saying the football fraternity “needs to cook some influential ideas for the betterment of our beautiful game”.
“We had technical director (TD), Manfred Hoener who was at the helm of scouting players in Malawi. A lot of players were spotted including Yours Truly — but his departure left the gap.
“Then John Kaputa replaced him but what Malawi has achieved? We are even failing to export players to Europe, as a result the Malawi national senior team is being accommodated by players who are plying their trade in Mozambique.”
Initially, Marinica was hired to replace Kaputa as TD and Kanyenda said this was the right decision and hinted that FAM might have been convinced that Marinica was “the right person to format our system of play. This just shows that the Romanian was greedy.
John Kaputa
“We need to put in place good structures and players should be well managed starting from the grassroot level — otherwise we might keep on chopping and changing coaches without success.
“If we are to appoint local coaches to manage our lovely Flames, let’s give them all the support and good packages for them to perform better as we do with expatriate mentors.
“I remember during our heydays after Under-17 call-up, we had players like Fischer Kondowe, Maupo Msowoya, Dan Chitsulo, Swadick Sanudi etc. Then later promoted to the Under-20 where we joined players like Peter Mponda, Peter Mgangira,James Chimera Jnr etc.
From there, we were promoted to the senior team. Let’s look back and scratch the ideas that were being used before so that we should keep on producing players that can compete in European leagues.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express
