The Football Association of Malawi says the Bingu National Stadium football pitch in Lilongwe will be temporarily closed for use from Thursday 21st October 2021.
The stadium has been closed to enable the Ministry of Youth and Sports to complete the renovations of the facility to ensure it meets the FIFA minimum standards to host top tie international matches.
“You may recall that the Stadium has been inspected twice by CAF on behalf of FIFA in preparation for hosting of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. According to the standard regulations for FIFA sanctioned matches, BNS requires to improve the quality of the pitch, technical benches, furnishing of change rooms, the VIP area, devolution facilities as well as remove permanent advertising at the stadium.” reads a statement from FAM.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports in conjunction with the Football Association of Malawi have been working on the recommendations by CAF to improve the stadium standards and have invested substantial amounts of resources towards the project this far.
Apart from the resources put together between the Ministry, Sports Council and FAM, FISD was also engaged to assist the stadium with drilling of a bore hole and installation of a solar operated water pump to supplement water supply from Water Board ensure that there is constant supply of water for irrigation of the pitches and also to reduce water bills.
The Ministry has further secured more resources to continue with the renovations of the facilities as recommended by the CAF inspection report, hence the need for temporary closure of the stadium pitch after the match between the Malawi National Women’s team and Zambia on Wednesday 20th October 20 in the 2022 AFCON Women’s Qualifiers
