By Brian Moses
Lilongwe, May 6, Mana: First Capital Bank under-20 League will resume on May 29, 2021 with registration of players next week.
Speaking to Malawi News Agency (MANA) on Thursday National Youth League General Secretary, James Sawelengera, said everything is in place for the league to start.
“Starting from next week we are requesting all the teams to register their players before the league starts. We will make sure that those registered are eligible.
“We are going to use national identity cards, school numbers through Malawi Schools Sports Association (MASA) as First Capital Bank league is been played by school going children.
“This will help us in the process of registering those who are really qualified for the under-20 league,” Sawelengera said.
He said the registration using IDs as well as the schools is to ensure that there is no age cheating.
“We are putting in place mechanism on how we will be checking age of those players registered. We want to make sure that we have the right players playing for the under 20 national league,” Sawelengera said.
Sawerengera added that they would, in future, want to introduce other leagues so that they are able to follow the development of players.
The national league is in the process of introducing other leagues starting from under 12, 14, 15, 17 and 19.
According to sawerengera this will help in following each player’s stages hence helping beat age cheating as well saying any team which is going to register an over age player will be punished since age cheating is indiscipline.
Civil Service Football Club General Secretary, Ronald Chiwaula, said he is happy that the league is starting.
“We are very happy that the league is back and our boys are ready to compete from where we stopped last season,” Chiwaula said.
On registering players who are over aged the secretary general said the club is ready to assess all the players coming for under-20 trials that they have the required age.
“As a football club we know that this league is for the school going children and we make sure that we assess every child coming for trials if indeed he falls on that category of under-20.
“If they don’t qualify for under-20 we try as much as possible to give them a chance to join the senior team when we see that they have talent,” Chiwaula said.
