FAM conducts FDH Cup regional draw

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has today conducted a draw for the FDH Knockout Cup qualifying round involving Regional Associations teams.

The draw, which took place at FAM’s headquarters in Chiwembe, was attended by senior officials from the association and FDH Bank officials.

About 62 teams (20 from the South, 24 Centre and 18 north) went into the draw that will determine the 16 teams to join the 16 Super League teams for the National draw.

The Southern Region will have two rounds. In round one, top four teams as per the 2019 SRFA Log table were seeded and the remining 16 teams will battle for eight slots in the second round where they will be joined by the four seeded teams. In the second round, the 12 teams will battle it out for the six slots in the national draw.

The Centre will have two rounds of matches where in round one all the 24 teams will play to determine 12 teams to qualify for the last round that will produce the six teams for the national draw.

The Northern region will have three rounds of matches to determine the four teams that will qualify for the National Phase

From the 18 participating teams, nine teams that participated in 2019 league season were seeded. The remaining nine teams, which have just joined the league this season, were put in one pot where four teams were drawn to play in two playoff matches.

For round one, the two playoffs’ winners joined the nine seeded teams and the other five teams for the first round of 16 teams to identify eight teams to qualify for the second round.

In addition, the sponsors have pledged to dress all the 16 regional teams that will make it into the national phase.

The Bank’s Marketing Manager Ronald Chimchere disclosed this during the draw for the Cup’s Regional Preliminary Phase held on Wednesday morning at the Mpira Village in Blantyre.

The uniforms will be on top of the K500,000 and two match balls that the bank had already pledged to the 16 teams.

Chimchere said they want to make the competition exciting at the lower level hence the incentives.

“We are excited that we are finally starting the competition. We want to make the matches in regions very competitive and this is why we have pledged to buy uniforms for the 16 teams on top of other incentives so that the teams are motivated to do well,” said Chimchere.

FAM General Secretary Alfred Gunda thanked FDH for coming up with more incentives for Regional Leagues sides and said the association is ready to administer the competition professionally.

Below is the full list draw:

Southern Region Football League

Round 1