Airtel Malawi has maintained the ‘Zamadolo’ theme which was unveiled last year to this year’s edition of Airtel Top 8 Cup which kicks off this weekend in Blantyre.
This was disclosed on Thursday at Mount Soche Hotel where Airtel Malawi Limited in conjunction with Football Association of Malawi presented eight Macron kits to the participating teams.
The company’s managing director Charles Kamoto said the ‘zamadolo’ theme has been maintained because it fits well with the caliber of the competition which only features top eight teams.
“This season, we are not changing the theme because it’s very massive and it fits well with the type of competition which is only participated by top eight teams. Last season, we experienced exciting football where we saw 28 goals scored, beating the previous season’s 12 goals in the same eleven matches so it really lived up to its billing and we expect the same this year,” he said.
He added: “We have seen standard of play going up, we asked for goals, we saw goals coming, we saw players identified in our cup participating for the Flames at Afcon this year and the team did exceptionally well so we are happy that our competition is adding value to the beautiful game and we are optimistic that this will continue,” he concluded.
FAM Vice president Jabbar Alide, who is also competitions chairperson, said he is expecting this year’s competition to surpass what was achieved last year.
“Our expectations this year are very high. Last year, Zamadolo edition brought us best top 8 ever. This year, we look to raise the bar further in terms of broadcasting, fan engagement and we think we will exceed what we achieved last year,” he explained.
On livestreaming the matches on FIFA Portal, Alide said: “It is a very big opportunity for us to livestream our matches on FIFA Plus Portal to all FIFA members where we will expose the matches all over for the people who are interested in scouting and they will also be able to see how passionate our fans are. For Airtel, we are exposing the brand to the world and for FAM, how organized we are as an association. This is beneficial across the board.
“We always aim to improve on how we do things and we are lucky we have a sponsor who is keen to see us improve. We will continue to strive for more success and we always look for a room to improve to make the tournament bigger and better,” he told reporters.
On his part, FAM President paid special tribute to the fans for their cooperation throughout the last edition and he urged them to maintain peace to safeguard the sponsorship.
“The fans have been amazing, the behavior exceptional, we haven’t had cases of hooliganism and we believe this behavior will continue. We want to end year with a bang and the best we can do is to safeguard the sponsors. We will have winners and losers, let’s accept results and promote fair play.”
He was also very grateful to Airtel for the continued support.
“We are also very grateful as a football fraternity because it means a lot to us for being considered. We are happy that the sponsorship is yielding the desired results and it’s adding value to football in terms of entertaining our supporters, nurturing young talent and also helping Airtel brand on and off the field of play so we are very grateful to our sponsors and we are looking forward to an exciting edition,” he concluded.
Format of the competition
A total of 11 Matches will be played through the competition and the quarterfinals will be played in a home and away basis where goal aggregate and away goal rules shall apply while the semifinals and final matches will be played in a single fixture.
Just like the previous season, there was no any draw conducted because position one team was automatically paired against the eighth placed team, second placed team playing the seventh team, third against sixth and fourth against fifth.
The opening match will see defending champions Nyasa Big Bullets hosting Karonga United in the Quarterfinal First leg at the Kamuzu Stadium.
On Sunday, Mighty Mukuru Wanderers will host Mafco at the same venue. Next week Silver will play Kamuzu Barracks at a venue yet to be announced by FAM while Dedza Dynamos will host Blue Eagles.
The teams will meet in the return leg in two-weeks time.
The winner of the competition will receive K17 million.
This is a great well organise cup which we are much reliable here in Malawi please Airtel don’t sport rovide us this support in aworld of sports