Leemisa Thuseho
LESOTHO Football Association (LeFA) has partnered with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in hosting a four-day workshop for local football administrators at Avani Maseru.
The training is being held under the UEFA Assist League Development Programme and is only for the 16 Vodacom Premier League (VPL) clubs which are represented by their respective presidents and secretary generals.
The course is ending today.
The programme was launched in 2017. Its objective is to share the experience and know-how of UEFA and its member associations outside of Europe.
By working closely with UEFA’s five sister confederations and FIFA, the programme has built on collaborations with football federations from Asia, Africa, North, Central and South America, New Zealand and South Pacific Island nations.
The Lesotho workshop is being facilitated by the head of the assist programme, Eva Pasquier alongside experts, Kenny McLeod and Stuart Larman.
Speaking during the opening of the training, Pasquier said the programme had four main pillars namely capacity building, youth development, infrastructure and supporting UEFA member associations.
However, she said they were focusing on capacity building.
“The programme is aimed at assisting UEFA sister members to develop football,” Pasquier said.
“The programme has four pillars but today we are focusing mainly on capacity building for the clubs. There is no football without clubs, so we are trying to help them function well and really know what must be done both on the pitch and in administration.”
She said the participants would be taken through good governance, event management, technical development, finance management and marketing courses.
The administrators will also get six months mentoring from UEFA to help them implement different initiatives for their respective clubs.
“Four days is too short a period for a workshop, but we will have a six months’ mentoring exercise where we will be working with clubs and federations on how they implement what they have learnt,” Pasquier said.
The programme has so far been taken to 11 African countries.
On his part, LeFA secretary general, Mokhosi Mohapi, said the initiative formed part of LeFA’s mandate to develop football.
“This forms part our mandate to develop football. It is also part of our strategy to re-package the league,” Mohapi said.
