A soccer commentator, Higger Mkandawire, has backed the decision by the Malawi National Football Team technical panel for leaving out striker Chiukepo Msowoya from the squad which is currently under non-residential training.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) released provisional squads for the Flames and under-23 national teams to start non-residential training in all regions of the country, a list which omitted Chiukepo on the call up list.

The Nyasa Big Bullets hitman is the 2018 TNM Super League golden boot award winner.

Mkandawire said: “The issue is not about Chiukepo but about making flames to producing credible results because we have been witnessing the so called super league stars being called for the national duties but at the end of the day Flames is not performing as expected so now the technical panel has seen the weaknesses and are putting patches to holes.”

He further warned the spirit of trying to build our national team with names rather than performance, saying this cannot yield results.

The recent call up, in which the Flames is training together with the under 23 side, has excluded notable names of goal minders like Chiukepo and Moyale Barracks’ Gasten Simkonda.

Training sessions are being conducted in the three regions of the country and players based in each of the three regions have been assigned to specific coaches for the training which will take place as players are on an off-season break.

The call up is a preparation for the team’s last match for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations which they had already bid farewell for the qualification hopes.