Nyasa Big Bullets to participate in the Sapitwa 4 Football Season 3 at Mulanje Park set for March 22-23

* Others are Ekhaya FC and Mighty Tigers also from Blantyre to be joined by Lilongwe’s Creck Sporting Club

* To be covered live exclusively on MBC TV 2 On-the-GO, MBC TV, MBC Radio 2 FM and MBC Digital

* One of Sapitwa 4 Football’s objectives is to create a platform for selected TNM Super League clubs to prepare well for upcoming season

By Duncan Mlanjira

Nyasa Big Bullets are this year participating in the much anticipated pre-season Sapitwa 4 Football-Season 3 alongside fellow Blantyre-based sides Mighty Tigers and Ekhaya FC to be joined by Lilongwe’s Creck Sporting Club — set for the traditional venue, Mulanje Park Stadium in Mulanje on the weekend of March 22-23.

The competition, that creates a platform for selected TNM Super League clubs to prepare well for upcoming season, follows two successful editions which took place in 2023 and 2024 that was both won by Bangwe All Stars, who got relegated from the top flight league in the 2024 season.

This is the most anticipated pre-season football tournament in Malawi and Nyasa Big Bullets are set to add glamour for the Season 3 while Ekhaya FC, champions of the Southern Region Football League 2024, have just been promoted into the TNM Super League — thus the Sapitwa 4 Football will assist the debutantes to prepare well for upcoming Malawi 2025 football season.

This is one of the tournament’s objectives, whose others are to give a chance to football supporters to watch pre-season soccer matches and to promote Mulanje District as a hot tourism destination.

A statement from the organisers says the format of Sapitwa 4 will first involve a draw, which will be conducted to identify opponents of  the first and second matches on Saturday, March 22 — and which also determines the teams to be the ‘home’ side.

The two winning teams on Saturday will play the second match on Sunday, March 23 as the final while losers will play the first match to determine 3rd place.

And to encourage teams to score more goals, the score draw will earn 3 points; a goalless draw earns 2 points — and since fans love penalties, each game will have penalty shoot-out to increase more excitement and uniqueness of the matches.

The winner of the penalty shoot-out will accumulate a bonus 1 point — thus 4 points for a straight win, 3 points for a score draw, 2 points for a goalless draw.

The first match will kick-off at 12h30 and second match at 15h00 — all to be covered live exclusively by Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) as the official broadcaster.

The matches will be covered live on MBC TV 2 On-the-GO; MBC TV; MBC Radio 2 FM and MBC Digital; with entry into Mulanje Park on each Matchday being K2,000 each.

“We are happy that Sapitwa 4 preseason is now in the 3rd year and it is getting better and bigger,” says lead organiser, Chimwemwe Nyirenda. “With Nyasa Big Bullets joining this year this has raised the stakes and profile higher.

Nyirenda, who is Super League of Malawi (SULOM) executive member, initiated theSapitwa 4 in 2023, whose participating teams were Bangwe All Stars, Dedza Dynamos, Mighty Tigers and Red Lions — whose champions were Bangwe All Stars.

The second edition took place in 2024 involving Bangwe All Stars, Mighty Tigers, Dedza Dynamos and Mulanje Park’s host team, FOMO FC — in which Bangwe All Stars emerged the winners.

The 2024 season was FOMO FC’s debut appearance in the TNM Super League, but were relegated when they ended on 14th position while Bangwe finished 15th.

Nyasa Big Bullets finished the season on 3rd place; Creck Sporting on 6th while Mighty Tigers were 12th and for being in the top eight, Nyasa Big Bullets and Creck Sporting earn their place for the Airtel Top 8 2025.