Malawi National Football Team’s merchandise sales have dropped by 81 percent in the just ended year, Times Sport can reveal.
According to Football Association of Malawi (Fam) budget document, the body generated K52.2 million from the Flames replicas in 2024 having pocketed K280.1 million in 2023, representing 81 percent decline.
Fam Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka attributed the drop in revenue to lack of new stock last year.
“The demand has been huge despite Flames not doing well. The last order for 2023 we sold last year and by June we had no stock,” Zakazaka said.
However, the association is projecting to generate K370 million from the Flames replica jerseys this year.
Soccer analysts have also attributed the drop in revenue to the performance of the Flames last year, having performed poorly in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Sports analyst George Kaudza-Masina said the Flames performance had a negative impact on replica sales.
“Considering the poor performance of the Flames in the past year, it is not surprising that the replica sales dwindled significantly.
“We might also consider the marketing approach where Fam might not have understood their clientele base in terms of pricing and different quality of the product itself, but this might be subjective but what is more clear is the poor performance of the Flames as supporters always want to associate themselves with success,” he said.
Replica jerseys are one of the ways of generating resources for both national teams and clubs.
Well established teams such as Tanzania giants Simba Sporting Club and Yanga Sporting Club have been a success in replica sales through proper market research.
For instance, Simba and Yanga each sell more than 100,000 replicas every season.
Last year, the Flames were just a pale shadow of themselves having only registered two wins, seven losses and one draw in all competitions.
The Flames registered a 3-1 over minnows Sao Tome and Principe in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers at Bingu National Stadium before beating Burkina Faso in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers.
Last year, the Flames did not participate in the Cosafa Men’s Championship having pulled at the eleventh hour following the death of former vice president Saulos Chilima, who was killed in a plane crash alongside eight others.
Meanwhile, Fam, on Sunday, announced that the Flames replicas were available.
This comes as the Flames are expected to face Namibia in the Fifa World Cup qualifiers in March.
Malawi are fourth in Group L with six points from four matches, four points behind leaders Tunisia, Namibia and Liberia are second and third with eight and seven points respectively.
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