Mighty Wanderers’ celebration of Castel Challenge Cup 2024 triumph in just one day surpasses Bullets’ 2023 quadruple and 2024 double

* But, hey, who can blame them after ending a 24 months trophy-less period in four tournaments

Mighty Wanderers went to town soon after clinching the Castel Challenge Cup 2024 after beating Mzuzu City Hammers 1-0 in the final on Saturday by posting pictures of celebration on Facebook — surpassing what their arch rivals Nyasa Big Bullets achieved — the 2023 quadruple and 2024 double.

But, hey, who can blame the Nomads after ending a 24 months trophy-less period in three tournaments of missing out the TNM Super League in both 2023, 2024 — whose last title they won seven years ago in 2007.

They also failed in the FDH Bank 2023 & 2024, the Airtel Top 8 2023 & 2024 as well as the Castel Challenge Cup 2023.

Thus, they deserve the overkill celebration as they forge forward for another fixture-crowded season of the TNM Super League, FDH Bank Cup, the Airtel Top 8 and the next Castel Challenge Cup.

Ahead of the Castel Challenge Cup 2024 semifinal clash against Mzuzu City Hammers, last week, Nyasa Big Bullets coach, Kalisto Pasuwa expressed his worry that his players were fatigued as they were not having enough time to recover due to fixture congestion.

I agree with him, we have four top level tournaments in one season of about eight months when the season kicks off in April. Ahead the match against Mzuzu City Hammers played on midweek of Tuesday — four days before the final — the Bullets had travelled a long distance of to and from Dedza where they played against MMF Marines the previous Saturday.

Pasuwa told Nyasa Big Bullets Media that they had been traveling long distances within the shortest period of time as in 14 days, they had fulfilled five fixtures spread across the North, South and the Central regions — covering 2,000kms by road.

They defeated Hilltop 1-0 in Mzuzu the previous week on a Wednesday, four days after facing Kamuzu Barracks in the TNM Super League in Blantyre before travelling to Dedza where they beat MMF Marines 3-1.

Last year, Pasuwa also complained that his charges were fatigued having had to endure congested fixtures in past four months of last season as on top of the TNM Super League assignments, they had to honour four tough Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Champions League international matches — two being two legs against one of Africa’s top sides, TP Mazembe.

In between, they had to defend the FDH Bank Cup which they retained and went on to retain the TNM Super League 2023 title and had been through to the Castel Challenge Cup 2023 quarterfinals, which they eventually won. On top of the some of his players had to honour national team assignments.

Of course, fixture congestion comes when a team does well in competitions in which they had to fulfill all but the shortest period in between means that our season is congested with competitions.

The game’s management, led by Football Association of Malawi (FAM), Super League of Malawi (SULOM), needs to go back to the drawing board and revise the football calendar.

Participation in Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League depends on when a team wins the domestic league and for Confederation Cup is for those that have attained that county’s top cup competition.

Which cup tournament is it in Malawi that should be considered for from what we have; the FDH Bank Cup, the Airtel Top 8 or the Castel Challenge Cup, whose inaugural was just last year?

Apart from the FDB Bank Cup, the other three competitions are concluded towards the end of the year, and that’s when the team’s management consider to participate in the CAF Interclube competitions — just as Silver Strikers are considering to do.

I don’t know if CAF allows, say in the case of Silver Strikers as champions of the TNM Super League 2024, that they register for 2025/26 edition of the CAF Champions League as opposed to the 2024/25 edition and the Bullets for the Confederation Cup 2026 as champions of the FDH Bank Cup 2024?

This will assist Malawi’s two representatives to prepare well ahead of the CAF Interclube as opposed to the impromptu decision to register for such high profile tournaments in which they fail to go past the preliminary stages.

This brings me to a suggestion made by former FAM president, Walter Nyamilandu Manda ahead of the elective general assembly in  December last year, when he indicated that if he was to have been re-elected, he would have initiated that the Super League be reduced to 12 teams from the current 16 in line with FIFA requirements as well as cutting on costs and enhancing competition.

I totally agreed with him last year that it was a move in the right direction if our football was to improve bearing in mind that teams criss-cross the country week in and week out — spending so much resources but the return from such investment is very little to uplift the teams for the next season.

As a recap, I opined that to do this, we need to boost the image and competitiveness of the lower leagues in all three regions — the Premier Division and Division 1 by providing them with heavy sponsorship and erecting right stadia from which they generate money from tickets.

Imagine, people watch these lower leagues for free! No! This shouldn’t be allowed and thus, I said, pump in enough resources to empower these lower leagues with the right infrastructure such as we have in Mulanje, Balaka, Dedza, Karonga, Chitipa and the yet to be completed in Zomba.

If the lower leagues are correctly assembled, say 12 each for Super League, Premier Division and Division 1, they shall be very competitive in such a way that earning promotion into the elite league shall be a huge achievement.

The reserve sides of the Super League should also have their own youth league — not the current system where they compete with older players in the Premier Division or Division 1. They need to be assessed for promotion into the main team based on their performance against their age group competitors.

We can’t have four competitions targeting the elite league alone — starting with the year-long Super League itself, the Airtel Top 8, the FDH Bank Cup and the Castel Challenge, that was introduced out of nowhere when the season was underway.

Spread them out to the lower leagues. Let the Super League teams compete for their league title, the Airtel Top 8 and FDH Bank Cup as the the national cup competition and the Castel Challenge for the Premier Divisions — formatted like the Airtel Top 8.

Secure strong sponsorship for the Division 1 by also giving the teams subventions for their travel costs to create great competition amongst them to earn promotion to the upper stage where the bigger money is rolling.

I also gave an example of Nyasa Big Bullets coach, Pasuwa who had complained of fatigue having had to endure congested fixtures following the inclusion of the CAF Champions League.

I also emphasised that we can’t allow ourselves to have people watch Premier Division and Division 1 games for free. The same should apply in which people — many of them who have lots of money — watch elite team matches for free through what is provided for as complementary tickets.

Who pays for these complementary tickets and who, for heaven’s sake, came up with this system? It’s a rotten system. If people want to watch matches at the VIP Stand, they should pay for it — even the Head of State should pay, including his whole entourage of Cabinet Ministers that follow him; such as what happens when he travels outside the country and on his return.

Otherwise, celebrate, yee Nomads, celebrate — and indeed strive to make Mighty Wanderers “mighty again” to compete favourably at CAF Interclube level.