Tabitha Chawinga, the captain of the Malawi Women’s Football team and a striker for Olympique Lyonnais Feminin, has pleaded with the Malawian government to invest in women’s football development.
Despite the accomplishments of its women’s football players, Malawi still lacks proper women’s football structures and is unable to compete in major international tournaments, which saddens Chawinga.
The former PSG striker was speaking in Malawi where she is spending her holiday before she returns to France.
The Malawi Football Association (FAM) stated that the Scorchers, a team that solely participates in Cosafa Cup competitions, recently withdrew from the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) qualifiers citing financial constraints.
The last time the team played was in October last year in South Africa where they managed to win the Cosafa trophy for the first time after beating Zambia’s sharp shooting Copper Queens. Since then, there is nothing that has happened.
People think Malawi has invested in Women’s football but it’s not true, reveals Chawinga
“While in France, people talk more about Malawi. After seeing what I am doing together with my sister Temwa in the USA, they think we have invested a lot to the point of producing star players,” Chawinga said.
“In fact others have told me that they want to visit Malawi to scout players. It is the same case in Zambia, people out there have seen a huge potential from these two countries. But, on the ground the case is different; Malawi has done little to develop the game.”
She continued: “We have great talent in the country, but we struggle to have resources. Look at our team, they won the Cosafa Cup and we thought we would see serious investment,” she bemoaned.
Chawinga who won the golden boot and player of the season award in France last season thinks Malawi has the potential to export more female footballers abroad the country invests in the game.
READ MORE: “Sorry for letting you down,” Barbra Banda pens emotional letter to Zambians after exiting Olympics
