The journey in the 2019 Airtel Top 8 trophy is set to roll out on Saturday April 27, 2019  with an inaugural match between Mighty Be Forward Wanderers against Silver Strikers scheduled at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.

The last meeting between the two sides in the same cup was in 2017 after crashing in the final stage which saw the Bankers outclassing the Nomads by 10-9 through post-match penalties.

TN Stars, who are competing for the first time since the trophy was introduced, will host Karonga United at Kasungu stadium.

On Sunday, Civo stadium will host a game between Kamuzu Barracks versus another newly introduced side, Masters Security.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) Commercial and Marketing Director, Limbani Matola, said soccer fans should expect fireworks during the inaugural day as well as the whole competition.

Matola said: “This year we expect a stiff competition because this time around some of the so called regulars are not in the race and instead we have seen new comers whom we believe will bring new things making the competition to be unpredictable.”

Matola further laughed off assertions that the league might lose touch due to the absence of Nyasa Big Bullets who are serving a ban.

“Those speculations are baseless because if you recall when the cup was launched in 2017, Bullets were booted in the early stages by Silver Strikers at Mulanje Park but the competition proceeded perfectly and we made a record of K54 million during the final game at Bingu National stadium,” he said.

2019 Airtel Top 8 trophy, which involves super league top eight teams, will run without the current super league champions Big Bullets and the current trophy’s defending champions, Blue Eagles.

Bullets were barred from participating after being punished for violence related issues during the previous competition while Blue Eagles failed to make it into top eight of the previous super league season.