Preparing for 2010 the Malawian way

If you thought Bafana Bafana are far from ready to compete at the 2010 World Cup, the situation in other southern African countries like Malawi is worse, if not pathetic.

Poor preparations both on and off the pitch have cast a huge shadow of doubt on whether Malawi would be able to host visiting teams or qualify for the Africa’s first ever World Cup.

Save for the renovation of the national 40-seater Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, there is little that Malawi has done so far to improve its facilities in readiness to host a visiting team.

On paper, President Bingu wa Mutharika appointed an inter ministerial committee to prepare for the World Cup but the committee’s impact is yet to be felt.

On the pitch, the situation is even gloomier for the Malawi’s Flames.

A 3-1 loss to 3-1 to Zimbabwe second string side in a formality African Nations Cup qualifier further recently raised question marks over the Flames’ readiness for the 2010 World Cup, prompting captain Peter Mponda to urge the Football Association of Malawi to forget about qualification.

Mponda has every reason to doubt whether a team that has declined worrying, losing six-back-to-back-games in the last five months since English coach Stephen Constantine took over.

The loss to Zimbabwe in Bulawayo not only certified the Flames as not worth enough for qualification at next year’s African Cup of Nations finals but also piled pressure on the Promised Messiah Constantine.

Constantine, whom Malawi Minister of Sports Khumbo Kachali described as arguably the worst expatriate, is popular in Malawi for wrong reasons, having lost 1-2 to second string Namibia in front of President Mutharika during an Independence Celebrations game.

The former India and Nepal coach doesn’t seem to give the long-suffering Malawian fan hope either -- he has blamed the poor quality of players, low domestic league standards and inadequate funding as the evils affecting Malawi football.

To sum up it all he says he would “need at least two and half years” to put the Flames back on their feet!

And if you calculate that the World Cup is just less than 1000 days away, then Mponda and other analysts have every reason to rule the Flames out of the running for a spot at the 2010 World Cup.