Karonga United are a point away from securing a TNM Super League return after beating Kawaza 2-0 on Sunday to maintain their two-point-cushion over closest rivals, Chilumba Barracks, in the Simama Northern Region Football Association League Premier Division.
\nBoth sides wind up their assignments this weekend at home against Mzuzu-based Fish Eagles.
\nChilumba will play their final league game on Saturday, with Karonga facing the same Eagles on Sunday.
\nKaronga have 64 points while the Malawi Defence Force side is lying two points behind them.
\nA draw in their final game will see Karonga being crowned champions regardless of Chilumba\u2019s game.
\nSuch is the case because the former Super League side holds a goal-difference advantage of 18 over the soldiers.
\nKaronga United Chairperson, Alufeyo Chipanga, insists that his charges are the right candidates to play in the country\u2019s elite league next year.
\nHe said the team\u2019s excellent away record has been key to their success.
\nBanda said he has no problem with his team playing its final game on different days with rivals Chilumba.
\n\u201cThat does not concern us at all. Even if they say we should be the first side to play our final game, we will do it. I believe there is nothing sinister in the arrangement of the fixture. It may just be a coincidence,\u201d Banda said.
\nAsked if this will not create room for match fixing, Northern Region Football Association (NRFA) Vice Chairperson, Felix Mbonekera-Msiska, said there can never be such a possibility.
\n\u201cThat can never be the case. Our Fixtures Secretary did his part before coming up with the fixture. So we assure all teams that all is in place for a great finish to our season,\u201d Mbonekera- Msiska said.
\nIn a separate interview, NRFA Fixtures Secretary, Ollens Msonda, dismissed such claims, saying he came up with the fixture long before the tight race between Chilumba and Karonga.
\nChilumba Coach, Kelvin Kuyewawa, was not available for comment as his mobile phone went unanswered on several attempts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karonga United are a point away from securing a TNM Super League return after beating Kawaza 2-0 on Sunday to maintain their two-point-cushion over closest rivals, Chilumba Barracks, in the Simama Northern Region Football Association League Premier Division. Both sides wind up their assignments this weekend at home against Mzuzu-based Fish Eagles. Chilumba will play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57175,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57170\/revisions\/57175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}