MAFCO

Twice in two years the same opponent has stood between MAFCO and a trophy. FCB Nyasa Big Bullets beat them in the FDH Bank Cup final in 2023, then again in the Airtel Top 8 final in 2024, that one 2–1. The other side the club measures itself against is Silver Strikers, and there the ledger reads better: the 2013 President's Cup went to MAFCO after a goalless final and a penalty shoot-out that ran to 10–9.

The team belongs to the Malawi Defence Force and the Malawi Armed Forces College, which is where the nickname comes from — The Soldiers. Salima is the club's base, though the football has often been played elsewhere: Chitowe Stadium, up the lakeshore at Dwangwa in Nkhotakota, holds a thousand and has served as home ground on and off, with the club moving back there in 2021 after a spell away.

The route into the top flight came through the Central Region Football League, won in 2009–10. That first title carried them into the TNM Super League, and by 2015 they had finished as runners-up — the highest they have gone. Relegation followed in 2018 after a 15th-place finish; they came back.

August 2013 sits apart from any of that. A road accident near Benga trading centre killed three players — Sadani Mangwere, Chifuniro Phiri and Gift Mphande — and injured three more. It happened in the same year as the cup.

Richard Mbulu came back to the club in 2024 after a career spent abroad, and of the names attached to MAFCO his is the one that travels furthest.