Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has stated that it opted for Kamuzu Stadium as a home-ground for Malawi National Football Team matches following the government’s decision to turn Bingu National Stadium (BNS) into a Covid Isolation Centre early this year.
Fam General Secretary Alfred Gunda said the development hindered a certification exercise for the Chinese-build match venue, resulting in it not being considered for recent international matches.
The country’s football governing body has come under fire after Confederation of African Football (Caf) declared that Kamuzu Stadium is not fit to host international matches.
The declaration means the Flames will play next month’s 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers on foreign soil.
Gunda said they failed to inspect BNS in February as it was a restricted area.
“BNS has always been one of the Caf homologated stadiums in the country since it was inaugurated in 2017 but the condition of the pitch this year has not been maintained to a playable condition. In late October 2020, Caf was expected to send an inspector to do the stadium certifications ahead of the re-start of the 2021 Afcon qualifiers and Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
“The exercise was suspended due to Covid travel restrictions and, in February this year, Caf advised Fam to use local inspectors to do the exercise. This is why we only went with Kamuzu Stadium for the Uganda game,” Gunda said.