The first full-time coach of the Malawi national football team was Ron Meades. TheBritish Council arranged for his appointment through theEnglish Football Association to coach the team for the Republic Celebrations, playingMadagascar andZambia.Ray Batchelor was coach for four years from 11 November 1967 to 10 October 1971, guiding the team in 23friendly matches and twoOlympic Games. Players during this time included future coaches inHenry Moyo, Brian Griffin, and Yasin Osman. Other coaches included Brazilian Wander Moreira, BritishTed Powell, and the first locally-born coach, Alex Masanjala, who was appointed as an interim beforeHenry Moyo. Moyo was the first former national player to coach the Flames, and stayed in the position for five years. As of January 2019, only nine coaches had been in charge for more than 20 games. The most successful coaches were Powell, Moyo, andKim Splidsboel (2000–2002) from Denmark.[4][5][6]
Malawi first qualified for anAfrican Cup of Nations in1984, when only eight teams competed in the tournament in Ivory Coast. After a 3-0 defeat againstAlgeria, World Cup participants in 1982 and 1986, the Malawi drew 2-2 in the second game against eventual finalistsNigeria. With a 0–1 loss againstGhana, Malawi ended the group stage with 1 point at the bottom of the table and was eliminated from the tournament.[citation needed]
After 26 years, Malawi took part in anAfrica Cup of Nations again in2010. The team benefited from the fact that the continental elimination round for the2010 FIFA World Cup also served as the qualifying round for AFCON. In the group matches of the third round, Malawi, third place behindCôte d'Ivoire andBurkina Faso and with a record of only four points and 4–11 goal difference, was enough to make it to the continental finals.[citation needed]
At the tournament in Angola,Kinnah Phiri's team caused a big surprise. In the first group game, Malawi defeatedAlgeria, which had qualified for the World Cup, 3-0. One of the goalscorers was strikerRussel Mwafulirwa, who at the time was under contract for the Swedish first division clubIFK Norrköping and was thus one of only two players in the 23-man squad active in Europe. Malawi lost the second game against hostsAngola, 2-0.[citation needed]
For Malawi to have reached the quarter-finals for the first time, a draw in the last group game would have been enough. However, the team lost 3-1 toMali. After just three minutes, the Malawians were 2-0 down, a goal fromMwafulirwa did nothing to avert the team's elimination.[citation needed]