* The tournament’s national draw will be held tomorrow at Mpira Village in Blantyre from 10:00hrs
* It will attract 32 teams — 16 from the Super League and the other 16 from the regional leagues
Maravi Express
Only one regional preliminary round of the FDH Bank Cup 2024 is remaining involving Ndirande Stars and Ekhaya FC for the Southern Region while the Centre and the North have finished their qualifying games — ready for the national draw that will be held tomorrow at Mpira Village in Blantyre from 10am.
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A communique from Football Association of Malawi (FAM) reiterates that the national phase of the competition will attract 32 teams with 16 from the TNM Super League and the other 16 from the three regional leagues.
A total of 70 regional league teams took part in the preliminary phase in which the South and the Centre featured had 21 teams each while the North had 28 teams.
The qualified teams for the national draw are:
Super League
Silver Strikers, Mighty Wanderers, Kamuzu Barracks, Mzuzu City Hammers, Nyasa Big Bullets, Clerk Sporting Club, Moyale Barracks, Civil Service United, Dedza Dynamos, Karonga United, MAFCO, Mighty Tigers FC, FOMO FC, Bangwe All Stars, Chitipa United and Baka City.
Southern Region Football League
Nyambadwe United, Soccer Rangers, Cobbe Barracks, MMF Marine and the winner between Ndirande Stars and Ekhaya FC.
Central Region Football League
Santhe Admarc, Simbi FC, Mitundu Baptist, Ntcheu Warriors and Blue Eagles.
Northern Region Football League
Chintheche United, Chihame All Stars, Sporting FC, Lube Masters, Raiply FC and Iponga FC.
“The draw will start with the round of 32 whereby the top eight Super League teams as per the log table of Sunday, June 23 namely: Silver Strikers, Mighty Wanderers, Kamuzu Barracks, Mzuzu City Hammers, Nyasa Big Bullets, Clerk Sporting Club, Moyale Barracks and Civil Service United, will be seeded in the sense that they will not face each other.
“They will be put in one pot and drawn against the other 24 teams — the remaining eight Super League teams and the 16 from the regional leagues teams — in the other pot.
“However, during the draw involving the seeded teams there will be another draw to determine the home teams in the matches while the other draw the home team will be determined by the team drawn first.
“After that we will continue to do the draw for the round of 16 where the winners of round of 32 matches will be put in one pot.
The quarterfinals and semifinal draw will be done after the Round of 16 on the dates to be announced,” said FAM in the communique.
For the 2024 edition, the FDH Bank Cup sponsorship was increased from K120 million to K150 million — and from the K90 million in its inaugural before being pushed to K120 million.
The main highlight for the 2023 season was Nyasa Big Bullets becoming the first team to defend the title and also saw quite a number of players coming up — one of them is the Discovery of the Tournament from Santhe Admarc, goalkeeper, Zahaya Malithano.
Outstanding performances in the 2023 season had the champions Nyasa Big Bullets’ midfielder, Patrick Mwaungulu named Player of the Tournament while his teammate Hassan Kajoke won the Golden Boot award having scored four goals — with Mighty Wanderers goalkeeper William Thole winning the Golden Glove award.
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