Mighty Warriors international friendly match against Malawi, which was scheduled for Blantyre this Saturday, has been called off after the hosts pulled out citing financial constraints.

The Zimbabwe senior women's soccer team was scheduled to travel to Malawi tomorrow for the preparatory match which both teams were hoping to use ahead of the African Women Championships preliminary round which gets underway on the weekend of January 13-15.

Football Association of Malawi general-secretary, Suzgo Nyirenda, wrote to Zifa yesterday informing them of the latest developments.

"We had sent a budget to the government regarding the friendly match but honestly speaking it will be impossible to have this friendly match played here as we have not got the feedback on the budget since all the civil servants (working in Government) are on holiday up to January 9.

"However, we will communicate to you in due course once we have received funding so that this friendly match can take place.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause but be assured that we will invite your team in due course.

"This could have assisted both national teams in the preparations for the African Women Championships during this month.

"We hope you will understand the situation but we will communicate when the funds will be made available for the friendly match," Nyirenda said in his letter to Zifa.

The Mighty Warriors will play Botswana next weekend in Gaborone in the first leg of the African Women Championships and yesterday coach Rosemary Mugadza said the cancellation of the Blantyre match will not affect their preparations for this tie.

"We are going ahead with our preparations and this will not really affect us but will give us more time to prepare for the qualifier against Botswana.

"It is good for us as we will spend more days in camp.

"We are not breaking camp because next week we will be travelling to Botswana so we will continue with our workouts at Rufaro.

"The Unity Day match against South Africa gave us an assessment and we will work on our grey areas," said Mugadza.

Zimbabwe will host Botswana in the return leg at Rufaro on January 29 with the winner progressing to the last round where record champions Nigeria are waiting.

Meanwhile, the Mighty Warriors conducted their first training session yesterday at Rufaro with all the players called into camp reporting for duty except for goalkeeper Portia Mukucha.