By Chisomo Phiri
The Football Association of Malawi( FAM) says the Airtel top 8 is now back and games will start on October 30, 2021 up to December 18, 2021.
According to FAM, the K78 million cup will be participated by eight teams that finished in the top 8 of the 2020/ 2021 TNM Super League season and below are the teams that managed to finish top 8 of the 2020/2021 TNM Super League season and eligible for this year’s Airtel top 8.
1. Nyasa Big Bullets
2. Silver Strikers
3. Beforehand Wanderers
4. Civil Sporting Club
5. Karonga United
6. Moyale Barracks
7. TN Stars
8. MAFCO
On the cup format and qualification, FAM says the cup will be played on knockout basis from the first round ( quarter finals) on a home and away basis, where away goal and goal aggregate score rules shall apply.
The semifinals and final shall be played on knockout basis in single feature, and in the first round of the competition ( last 8) the clubs finishing in the top four ( 4) position of the 2020/2021 Super League Season will be the home teams in the first leg.
FAM further says there will be no draw for the first round and clubs will play against each other as follows :
Firstly, the club finishing in position one(1) for the Super League will play against the club finishing in position eight (8) and similarly position 2 ( 2) will play position seven (7), position three ( 3) will play position six(6) and position four (4) will play position five ( 5).
In the semi-final, a public draw will take place to determine which clubs will play against each other. On the prizes, the prizes for the competitions will be distributed as follows:
The first winner national will walk away with K17,500,000.00, Runner up with K 5,000,000.00 and all participating teams will walk away with K1000,000.00 each.on individual prizes category, top goal scorer will walk away with K500,000.00, player of the tournament will receive K500,000.00 while the man of the match in each game will walk away with K50,000.00.
On the match calendar, the quarterfinal first leg will start on October 30 to November 7, 2021 and quarterfinal return leg will be from 20 to 28 November,2021. From 4- 5 December, the first semi-final( semi-final 1) and from 11-12 December, the second semi-final ( semi-final 2). The final will be played on October 18, 2021.
The Airtel Top 8 is a National knockout cup organized by Football Association of Malawi ( FAM ) and is sponsored by Airtel Malawi to the tune of K78 million. The 2021 edition will be played between October and December,2021.
