* Thaboland’s Andrew Msiska was the first to record a goal in this landmark football sponsorship at K320 million
* While John Chikapa for Chipolopolo FC and Songwe Boarder United’s Vinja Sibakwe followed suit
By Duncan Mlanjira
From the two official matches of the district level of the 2023 Ibongetse Castel Challenge Cup held at Rumphi Stadium on Saturday, Thaboland beat Vongo FC 1-0 while Chipolopolo FC triumphed over Songwe Boarder United 4-1 in post match penalties following the 1-1 stalemate at full time.
Advertisement
Thaboland’s Andrew Msiska was the first to record a goal in this landmark football sponsorship at K320 million while John Chikapa for Chipolopolo FC and Songwe Boarder United’s Vinja Sibakwe followed suit.
The matches continue at district level whose participation is by 16 TNM Super League teams and 102 from regional leagues — 36 from the South, 29 from the Centre and 37 from the North and 816 district teams (344 from the South, 261 from the Centre and 209 from the North).
It is being played first in district preliminary phase whose champion shall qualify for the national championship. It will be played in two phases:
1. Zonal Round Robin Phase: In the first phase the teams will be dived into groups depending on number of teams registered and number of Zones in a particular district. In this phase teams will play on round robin;
2. District Knockout Phase: After the round robin each district will come up with eight teams to play in the knockout phase from quarterfinals to determine the district champion.
The regional leagues preliminary phase will have a knockout format to come up with 17 teams that will qualify for the national phase as follows: South 6, Centre 5 and North 6 (numbers determined by the number of teams registered in each Region).
The draw procedure is that the Southern Region will have three rounds of matches to determine the six teams that will qualify for the national phase.
Advertisement