FIFA has delivered a FIFA Essential Course in Club Management workshop in Lilongwe, Malawi, as part of the African edition of the capacity-building initiative, which comes under the auspices of the FIFA Leagues and Clubs Professionalisation Programme.

Held on 21 and 22 May in close collaboration with the Football Association of Malawi (FAM), the event brought together senior executives from Super League of Malawi clubs, women’s top-flight outfits, the Super League of Malawi and the FAM, to strengthen professional management structures across the domestic game.

The sessions focused on a range of key areas, including financial matters, governance, operations, sports marketing and operational planning, while also providing a platform for dialogue between FIFA, FAM, club and league representatives regarding the continued development of football structures in Malawi.

The staging of the workshop is part of FIFA’s broader commitment to supporting the sustainable growth and professionalisation of club football across the African continent through the FIFA Essential Course in Club Management and the FIFA Leagues and Clubs Professionalisation Programme.

Ornella Desirée Bellia, FIFA Director of Professional Football Relations & Development, said: “Football clubs are the foundational pillars of the sport, from grassroots communities to the world stage. We’ve introduced the African edition of the FIFA Essential Courses in Club Management alongside the FIFA Leagues and Clubs Professionalisation Programme, and we’re proud to partner with the FAM and its member clubs with a view to elevating their operational standards and internal structures. Our goal is to help make Malawi’s aspirations for professional football into a reality that features resilient, highly competitive and excellently governed clubs.”

FAM President Fleetwood Haiya added: “Apart from supporting us in the area of club licensing, this education initiative is going to help us to enhance compliance with some of the requirements we’ve established in the domestic game. We believe that having professionally run clubs will result in a more competitive league and better players, which will benefit our national teams.”