Malawi national soccer team coach complains about preparations

Malawi national soccer team coach Steve Constantine said while there is much talk and hype on the 2010 World Cup and Africa Nations Cup qualifiers, there is virtually nothing that has been done so far in preparing for the global showcase event.

Responding to a question on how he is planning for the qualifiers, the upfront coach took a long breath and said "I don't think we have really began preparations...we should have started preparations sometime back considering that the qualifiers are just around the corner.

"Preparation is not just saying 'we're preparing,' we have got to match words with action...we got to walk the talk," Constantine was quoted as saying by the website of The Nation newspaper of Malawi Saturday.

"To be honest with you, we are not doing as we should. There are other countries that are serious like Mozambique who were in Portugal, Zimbabwe were in Malaysia, Tanzania were in Denmark while the Flames have been idle here in Blantyre," he added.

Commenting on the recently announced format for both the 2010 World Cup and the Africa Nations Cup competitions which will run concurrently, as the 2006 tournament, Constantine said "it will be extremely tough for us in that unlike the 2006 qualifiers, which were not complicated, the 2010 campaign is very difficult especially considering that we have to go through two stages."

"So we'll have to match our plans with action and make use of the FIFA calendar days and play as many international friendlies as we can and not just talk. Already we have lost out on the first day on which we were supposed to play against either Mozambique or Kenya and that should give us plenty of food for thought."

Constantine also said that what is obvious is that in the first qualifying round, the Flames will find themselves in a group headed by any of the following giants of African football - Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Guinea, Ghana, Mali, Angola and Togo, according to the latest FIFA world rankings.

"One, therefore, hopes that we win our next matches to go up from the current position (30th in Africa) and move into the top 24 so that we will avoid being third rates, which would see us in a group that has Cote d'Ivoire and Zambia.

Constantine said that Malawi has not had proper junior structures and hence no players from the Under-17s, Under-20s and Under-23s are good enough to be called up into the senor team, saying the coaches will have to dig deep to come up with a strong squad for the 2010 qualifiers.

"I watched the World Youth Championships that were held in Canada a few months ago and I felt Nigeria and Zambia had very good squads of Under-20 players who would probably dominate their squads for 2010.

"Let's not forget that these two countries also have Under-23 sides that are good and will be the main targets when the qualifiers get underway next year.

"They have solid junior structures that make life very easy for their coaches and that explains why they do not have embarrassing slides on the FIFA world rankings as is the case with the Flames," said Constantine.

He said the challenge is now on him and the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) to see to it that structures are in place for the Flames to scale the two tough hurdles and be part of the equation in the 2010 Nations Cup finals in Angola and possibly the bigger one in South Africa.

On his part, FAM president Walter Nyamilandu admitted the Flames are indeed behind the schedule in preparing for the 2010 World Cup.

"But hopefully things will be on track very soon. The 2010 qualification format is more rigorous than the previous format in which teams like Togo and Angola were able to qualify even for the World Cup based on luck unlike this time around," said Nyamilandu.

"It will be the survival of the fittest and only the best teams will make it to both the World Cup and Nations Cup finals and the coach is right to say we should have started our preparations sometime back."