The Malawi national football team, the Flames, has been drawn against Comoros in the 2024 TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) first-round play-offs.

The first leg will take place in Comoros between February 28 and March 2, while the second leg will be played in Malawi between March 7 and March 9.

According to the draw conducted at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, the winner of this tie will face either South Africa or Egypt in the second round in May.

With domestic football currently off-season since December, newly appointed Flames coach Kalisto Pasuwa has only two weeks to prepare the team for the competition, which is exclusively for locally-based players.

Malawi has never qualified for CHAN since the tournament’s inception in 2007.