FOOTBALL Association of Malawi should be in the forefront to lobby other countries so that the idea to establish a Confederation of Southern African Football Association (Cosafa) club championship should materialise.

As rightly said by Super League of Malawi (Sulom) president Innocent Botomani, this is where players gain international exposure from the club level.

When players are drafted into the national squad without gaining such exposure at club level, they struggle at first and begin to tick after several matches.

Botomani also rightly observed that Malawi football was a force to reckon with in the past because it participated in the Cecafa club championship every year but we pulled out of Cecafa to join Cosafa.

Cosafa was a beautiful championship for the senior national teams in the region when it was being heavily sponsored by South African Breweries through their brand Castle Lager but the tournament lost its glamour that SAB pulled out its sponsorship.

The Cosafa is mostly controlled by South Africa because of its financial muscle but this country always dictates the tournament. When the tournament fails to take place, it's South Africa that plays a hand.

It is good news that at the same AGM it was also unanimously agreed to resuscitate the Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup to be held in Zambia mid this year.

The idea to form the club championship was discussed at the Cosafa annual general assembly that was held in Lusaka, Zambia and it was unanimously supported by all the affiliates.

It is up to Fam to lobby the other affiliates in the event that this idea will stall at any point. As a country, we are bound to benefit from this club championship just like we did with the Cecafa.

Since we pulled out of the Cecafa, the Senior Challenge as well as its club championship, still take place every year but not for the Cosafa.

The other countries in the region, with a strong voice from Malawi, should make sure that South Africa should not own the Cosafa. Malawi football probably is failing because we don't participate in regional tournaments when the whole of Africa does.

The regional tournaments are for the domestic league players to gain exposure. Caf also realised the need for the domestic players to gain international exposure by introducing the African Nations Championship (Chan).

The reason why the Flames fail is because our clubs don't participate in Caf club championship, the Champions League and the Confederations Cup.

When Big Bullets participated in the Caf Champions League about 10 years ago, the club showed its potential that they can be a force to reckon with if given more opportunities to participate in the high profile tournament.

We shouldn't let other countries do the pushing for us. We should be assertive ourselves by pushing the other countries to push for all resolutions to fruition.

And it starts with Sulom itself. The clubs should push Botomani and company, who will in turn carry the crusade to Fam. Let's give our football a new lease of life by giving our clubs the chance to gain international exposure.