FAM, Castel conducts rounds 64, 32 for Castel Challenge Cup

The Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and Castel Malawi Limited conducted a draw for the Castel Challenge Cup Round of 64 and 32 at Mpira Palace on Thursday morning.

The Castel Challenge Cup is the biggest knockout club competition in Malawi as it accommodates teams from the districts, regional, and Super League.

This season, 934 teams have registered to take part in the competition, of which 16 are from the Super League, 99 from regional leagues and 960 from district teams.

Castel Malawi’s Head of Marketing, Lavern Chitakata, expressed optimism of having a great season, more than what was experienced in the first edition of the competition.

“We have seen a huge change. We have seen a different kind of draw that has happened this time around from the last one that we had. We have seen good games that are going to be played in the districts again, something very important to us because we want to reach as many district teams as we can.

“We currently have so many of the games at the district level and with big games coming up, we will be able to patronize them. We have seen that the draw has taken up very well,” she said.

On behalf of FAM, Competitions, and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the association is looking forward to another breakthrough from a lower league team as experienced in the just-ended FDH Bank Cup competition, which was won by Blue Eagles, a team playing in the Premier Division.

“We are looking forward to a competition which will see the district teams doing well by advancing further in the competition. We want to see a surprise like what happened in the previous competition which we have just concluded in which for the first time in many years, a lower league side has won a major competition, why not the Castel Challenge Cup which is the biggest platform in as far as giving teams that play in the lower leagues is concerned. We are talking about 31 teams that play in the district leagues, and on top of 31, we have got 17 teams playing in the regional league, and we believe that these teams are being given that biggest platform as far as Malawian football is concerned,” he said.

With the increased package from K280 million to K400 million, FAM expects stiff competition from the teams.

“We are excited that the national phase for the second edition of the competition and now we have a shape following the preliminary round that was played at the district and regional level and now we are focused on taking it higher with the coming in of Super League teams.

“We have done the draw for the Round of 64 and 32, which, by the end of the day, will give us 16 teams that will qualify for the Round of 16, and we expect these matches to start in the first week of October and shortly, FAM will release the actual fixtures for the games.

“We are excited with how the competition has gone at the district and regional level and we believe that the excitement that we had in the inaugural year will grow this year because of the increased packages from K320 million to K400 million. This has made teams excited to win this cup and we are looking forward to a stiff competition this year,” he explained.

During the draw, five Super League teams were seeded.

The draw in detail:

Southern Region

1. Blantyre Rural Champions vs FCB Nyasa Big Bullets

2. FOMO FC vs Blantyre Urban Champions

3. Mighty Tigers vs Mwanza Champions

4. Machinga Champions vs Bangwe All Stars

5. Mighty Mukuru Wanderers vs Mulanje Champions

6. MMF Marine vs The Boyz

7. Thyolo Champions vs Nsanje Champions

8. Neno Champions vs Mangochi Champions

9. Chikwawa Champions vs Balaka Champions