The Malawi National Football Team should brace for a busy schedule in June, as apart from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) fixtures, the Council of Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Castle Cup will also take place in the same month.
During its meeting held in South Africa on Friday, Cosafa Executive Committee resolved that the regional showpiece be held from June 25 to July 9 in the North West Province of the Rainbow Nation.
Newly appointed Flames Coach, Ronny van Geneugden, will be in charge in both competitions.
The Flames bowed out from the group stages of the 2016 Cosafa Cup edition after beating Angola 3-0, Mauritius 1-0 before losing by a similar margin to Lesotho.
Football Association of Malawi President, Walter Nyamilandu, said the Cosafa Cup was among the short term targets for van Geneugden.
In June, Malawi is also expected to kick-start the journey towards the Afcon finals when playing in Group B against the Comoros Islands, Morocco and Cameroon.
The Flames are also participating in the African Nations Championship (Chan) starting with the preliminaries against Madagascar on April 22 away, then at home a week later.
If Malawi sail past the preliminaries, they will proceed to the first round games scheduled for July. Such a tight schedule will demand depth of squad and money.
Cosafa also announced through their website that the Under-20 championship will take place in the same province from December 1 to 10.
Malawi under-20 should be hoping for an improved performance this year as they finished without a win in three games in the 2016 edition also held in South Africa.
“Mauritius will host the Cosafa Under-17 Championship from July 21 to 30, while the Cosafa Women’s Championship is set to be staged in Zimbabwe from September 13-24,” reads www.cosafa. com.
Cosafa President, Phillip Chiyangwa, chaired the meeting which also attracted newly elected Confederation of African Football President, Ahmad Ahmad, from Madagascar.
Chiyangwa told the meeting that Cosafa would be looking at how its members would best benefit from Fifa’s recent decision to give Africa nine places at World Cups from 2026 onwards and to be better represented in Caf’s committees and competitions.
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