Football Association of Malawi (Fam) was yesterday locked in a meeting with Malawi National Council of Sports and government officials over the future of the Malawi national team following the firing of the Flames technical panel.

Fam has since said it would announce the new caretaker coach for the Flames by the end of the week as the association faces a race against time to replace Kinnah Phiri.

General secretary Suzgo Nyirenda called for calm after the football fraternity’s feeling that the coach’s firing would trigger succession crisis.

Many were of the view that immediately after firing the coach the vacuum should have been filled as the team prepares for a freindly game against Zimbabwe and the World Cup qualifier against Namibia in March.

But Nyirenda yesterday said the association was almost through with the process of picking the caretaker coach before appointing the new coach.

“People have to be patient. The decision to fire the coach was done just on Saturday; we cannot immediately announce the successor. There are a lot of things that have to be done. We have to meet government and after that we will announce the next course of action,” he said.

“I can assure all football fans that there is no need to panic. Of course we have a game in March and we also want to play a friendly on next Fifa calendar date hence the need to appoint a caretaker coach by the end of the week.”

Meanwhile, some national team players have bemoaned the firing of the Kinnah and his technical panel.

Captain Peter Mponda said the firing of the coach was not a solution to the numerous problems that the national team was facing.

“I don’t think the coach is solely to blame for all the problems that we are facing in the national team,” he said.

“Whoever comes will also face the same problems if he does not get the support that is necessary for the team to succeed.”

Mponda said there was need to look at the reasons behind Malawi’s poor performance than heaping the blame on one person.

Vice captain Moses Chavula said it was a pity that the coach had been fired.

“As someone I have worked with for over four years, it’s really sad that he has lost his job,” he said.

They both however, promised to support the new coach who is yet to be name