…Cup winner to take home K25m…
FDH Bank and Football Association of Malawi (FAM) have signed a five year cup sponsorship deal worth K450 million.
The signing ceremony took place on Thursday at Mpira Village where FDH Bank’s Head of Marketing and Communication Levie Nkunika and FA President Walter Nyamilandu represented their organisations.
The Bank, which is already pumping in K60 million to the Flames, said the FDH Cup will be sponsored to the tune of K90 million per season for five years starting from next season.
According to Nkunika, K53.6 million from the package shall be allocated to prize money, with the winner being given K25 million while the losing finalist will be consoled with K8 million.
The Cup will also be rewarding losing semifinalists with K2 million while every team that will make it into the quarterfinals will be receiving K1 million.
Regional teams participating in the national round of the cup will be receiving upfront subsidy of K500, 000 to cover for their logistical costs plus two match balls each.
“We believe in the potential of Malawian football and that is the reason why we have decided to sponsor this cup on top of K60 million that goes to the national team.
“We have seen fruits of investing in football with the performance of the Flames at Cosafa in South Africa and the recent 1-0 win over Botswana in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. This is what we want to see in the next five years of our partnership with the FA through this cup competition,” he said.
Nyamilandu, who was over the moon, hailed FDH Bank for the milestone that has made the cup the highest sponsored national competition.
“I am short of words with this gesture. This symbolizes the Bank’s serious intention to transform the beautiful game. This is a turnaround of Malawi football investment and fortunes because in total, this translates to K450 million for the cup competition and K180 million for three years for the Flames.
“This has given us the energy to go and administer foot all to the highest level from the bottom to the top and indeed, the future of our football is very bright,” he said.
The competition will see 72 teams (both national and regional) taking part and it is expected that the cup will kick off from May to September next year.0
Regional teams will play in the preliminary round where the winners will join the 16 teams in the round of 32.
