With the international football now here, serious national football teams, including opponents for Malawi National Football Team, are playing friendlies.
However, the Flames are coachless and have been inactive since last September. Football Association of Malawi (Fam) is also hunting for funding.
Despite the inactivity, the Flames are expected to play against Madagascar over two legs from the weekend of April 21 2017 in the 2018 African Nations Champions (Chan) preliminary round qualifiers.
The Flames also have 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers to fulfil in Group B comprising Morocco, African kings, Cameroon and the winner of a preliminary round tie between Comoros and Mauritius.
To prepare for such games, Cameroon played against Guinea on Tuesday and travel to Tunisia for another warm up tomorrow.
Morocco, too, will play against the Netherlands on May 21.
Elsewhere, Madagascar Football Federation has since appointed Frenchman Nicolas Dupuis as Head Coach ahead of the Chan battles against Malawi.
Dupuis, 46, will be assisted by Auguste Raux, the Madagascar football federation announced last week.
In other friendlies, South Africa hosted Angola on Wednesday before welcoming Guinea Bissau Friday.
Across the borders, Tanzania hosted Zambia yesterday and Saturday in Dar es Salaam.
However, former Flames skipper, Peter Mponda, on Tuesday said it was important for the current coaches to help the forthcoming expatriate coach an insight into domestic football.
“Even if there was a coach, it was going to be difficult for him to start working as the season is on break. However, we should not panic just because the Flames’ opponents are playing,” Mponda said.
“I believe that by the time the season starts, the coach would have been employed. However, the Flames are the not the responsibility of the Fam President [Walter Nyamilandu] alone. The new coach will need guidance from local coaches.”
However, former Be Forward Wanderers general secretary, David Kanyenda, on Tuesday said there was urgent need for the Flames to play friendlies.
“We haven’t played a full international since the Swaziland [Afcon] match and by the time we play our first qualifier in June, I think that would be a whopping nine or so months would have lapsed,” Kanyenda explained.
“Both our opponents were at Afcon where Morocco finished in the quarterfinals thus playing four matches and the Indomitable Lions went all the way to win the trophy having played a maximum of six matches. Yet they still find it necessary to regroup and play warm up games. Ideally, teams like the Flames, who have been idle for so long, ought to be in the forefront to utilise Fifa dates.
“If resources are a constraint, we should have played even with one of the neighbouring countries. With such shoddy preparations, we should forget about competing against teams of Cameroon’s stature.”
Fam often cites exorbitant appearance fees, ranging from K10 million ($15,000), which high profile opponents for potential friendlies demand.
Fam announced on Monday that they had stepped up the hunt for an expatriate coach, adding that in the mean time, local trainers will be in charge of the team’s preparations.
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