Pasuwa says Flames now ready to compete

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) says the Flames’ rebuilding period is over and it expects the Malawi National Football Team to start winning competitions and qualifying for major tournaments such as the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and the Fifa World Cup. In an interview, FAM president Fleetwood Haiya said time is ripe for the team to start reaping the harvest after undergoing a major rebuilding exercise to blend young talent with experienced players aimed at enhancing performance. “Time is up for team rebuilding.

Our focus should now be on winning competitions such as the Cosafa Cup and qualifying for major tournaments,” he said. The FAM boss said lately, the Flames have improved and one can clearly guess the starting line-up before a match despite mixed results. The Flames have been underperforming in qualifiers for major competitions such as Fifa World Cup, Afcon and Africa Nations Championship with the technical panel claiming their focus was on long-term squad development rather than immediate results.

The disappointing run continued even in the 2025 Cosafa Cup, where they failed to win a match or register a goal in three group matches. They lost by 1-0 margins to Angola and Lesotho and got a goalless draw against Namibia. Flames coach Kalisto Pasuwa agreed with Haiya that the team is ready to compete.

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“From what we have seen, the team is ready to compete, though we still have some grey areas, which, hopefully, will be corrected when we participate in the upcoming Four Nations Tournament in Botswana,” he said. “The team has improved much in areas like defending, and there is now more balance in terms of both phases of play. We still need to improve on our conversion rate as our goals per chance ratio is still below average.” But on the need for the Flames to start qualifying for major tournaments, he said that is not guaranteed because such results require collective efforts.

Flames assistant coach Peter Mponda said the team is now good enough to compete for Cosafa title and qualify for 2027 Afcon finals although injuries of some players tend to be a challenge. “The impact of players’ injuries in the national team is different from clubs, where gaps can be easily filled,” he said. FAM set qualifying for the 2027 Afcon and winning the Cosafa Cup as targets for Pasuwa whose contract will expire at the end of the year.

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