* With Mighty Wanderers hosting Karonga United at Kamuzu Stadium a week later, Saturday April 19 while Silver Strikers will host Moyale on Monday, April 21
* Only Nyasa Big Bullets, Mighty Wanderers and Silver Strikers have played in all the seasons of the tournament, which pits top eight teams in the previous season of the TNM Super League
By Duncan Mlanjira
The official opening match of the Airtel Top 8 2025 on April 12 will be the first leg between defending champions Nyasa Big Bullets against Creck Sporting Club at Kamuzu Stadium.
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The other first legs of the tournament will be played a week later in which Mighty Wanderers will host Karonga United at Kamuzu Stadium while Mzuzu City Hammers will face Civil Service United at Mzuzu Stadium (Saturday April 19) with Silver Strikers hosting Moyale at Silver Stadium to wrap up the first leg of the quarterfinals on Monday, April 21.
In the second legs, Karonga will host Mighty Wanderers at the Karonga Stadium on Saturday, April 26 with Creck facing Bullets at a venue to be communicated.
On Saturday May 17, Moyale will host Silver Strikers at Mzuzu Stadium and the following day Mzuzu City Hammers will face Civil Service United at a venue also yet to be communicated.
The semi-finals are scheduled on June 28 and 29 with the final set on July 12.
Only Nyasa Big Bullets, Mighty Wanderers and Silver Strikers have played in all the seasons of the tournament — which pits top eight teams in the previous season of the TNM Super League.
The honours list in the TNM Super League had Silver Strikers as champions; Mighty Wanderers as runners-up; Nyasa Big Bullets (3rd place); Mzuzu City Hammers (4th), Civil Service United (5th), Creck Sporting (6th), Karonga United (7th) and Moyale (8th).
The match between Nyasa Big Bullets will be an interesting feature of the Airtel Top 8 2025 as the two sides met on March 22 in the Sapitwa 4-Season 3 at Mulanje Park, which The People’s Team won 1-0 Day 1 before beating TNM Super League debutantes Ekhaya FC by the same margin the following day to left the trophy.
The objective of the pre-season tournament is to create a platform for selected TNM Super League clubs to prepare well for upcoming season as well as to promote Mulanje District as a hot tourism destination.
For the third place, Tigers beat Creck Sporting on post match penalties after drawing 1-1 in regulation time.
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An intriguing package of the Sapitwa 4 was the match between Mighty Tigers and Ekhaya FC, which the league rookies won 2-1, as the two teams will be up against each other in their opening match of the TNM Super League 2025 title campaign to be played on April 6 at Kamuzu Stadium.
Airtel Top 8 will be the first major cup competition in the 2025/26 season, which was opened by the FAM-NBS Bank Charity Shield 2025, which was won by the TNM Super League 2024 champions, Silver Strikers beating their league runners-up Mighty Wanderers 5-4 in post-match penalties after a 2-2 draw.
The triumph was also a relief to the Bankers, who failed in three previous attempts losing to 7-time winners Nyasa Big Bullets in 2018, 2022 and 2024.
It also marked a dream start for Silver Strikers new head coach, Peter Mgangira, who said after the match that the win has given confidence to the players going into the new season, which they start against Nyasa Big Bullets on Saturday, April 5.
Meanwhile, FAM reports that the NBS Bank Charity Shield 2025 at Bingu National Stadium, “was a resounding success” as the season opener generated K61.7 million from ticket sales, K60 million from NBS Bank sponsorship, and K5.1 million from broadcasting rights, bringing the total revenue to K126.8 million — while achieving a net income of K65.7 million, marking a 50.6% increase from the K43.6 million raised in 2024.
FAM president Fleetwood Haiya is quoted in the press release as saying: “We extend our sincere gratitude to NBS Bank for increasing their sponsorship from K40 million in 2024 to K60 million in 2025.
“We also thank the fans for turning out in large numbers — not only to support their teams but also to contribute to this noble cause. A special mention goes to the participating teams for their commitment and enthusiasm in helping us raise funds for this worthy initiative.”
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FAM added that this year’s Charity Shield proceeds will be directed towards the health sector, with the beneficiary to be announced later.
This is the fourth time NBS Bank is supporting the annual event that marks the start of the new season and raises funds for charitable causes. For the 2023 edition, whose proceeds were from the match between Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers as well as from Flames Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Egypt, raised a total of K30.1 million that was used to construct four houses at a cost of K23 million for families which were left homeless due to effects of Cyclone Freddy in Ntauchira Village in Chiradzulu District.
As part of the package, FAM also presented K50,000 cash to each family and household items such as mattresses, blankets, sugar, bags of maize flour and salt worth K2 million.
In 2023, FAM and NBS Bank also made a distribution of cash worth K5.5 million to former Flames legends and other football stakeholders who were affected by Cyclone Freddy.
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In 2022, FAM, NBS Bank and Malawi Red Cross Society delivered relief food items to Cyclone Ana flood victims in Chikwawa from the K10.3 million proceeds realised from the Charity Shield.
The charity has also reached out to Malawi Blood Transfusion Services (2016); medical equipment for Kamuzu Central Hospital (2017); Braille embosser for Ekwendeni School for the Blind and various physiotherapy and medical equipment to Kachere Rehabilitation Centre (2018).
The 2019 edition reached out to people living with albinism under the theme ‘One Love – Stop the Killings’, which was through sponsorship from Ecobank — playing an advocacy role against all manner of barbaric acts targeting people living with albinism which reached crisis levels.
The proceeds of the Ecobank Charity Shield were used to procure a rescue vehicle which was donated to Association of People with Albinism in Malawi.
* Weather update
