MASERU — The Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) has begged the English Football Association (FA) to continue funding its development programmes in Lesotho.
Lefa president Salemane Phafane together with chief executive officer Mofihli Makoele met with FA officials earlier this month in Zurich, Switzerland, where they begged the association to continue its relationship with Lesotho.
The meeting came in the wake of reports that the FA were planning to cut all funding to three of Africa’s poor countries after its failed bid to host the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
The FA had been sponsoring development programmes for three southern African countries — Botswana, Malawi and Lesotho.
Lefa communications and information officer Mikea Kalati told the Lesotho Times on Tuesday that the association had requested the FA not to dump Lesotho.
“Our president and the chief executive officer met with FA delegates while attending a Fifa conference in Zurich (last month),” Kalati said.
“They negotiated with the FA delegates to continue assisting our association and were given a positive answer.”
He said the Lefa officials were requested to put their concerns in writing as a follow-up to their meeting in Switzerland.
“FA asked Lefa to write a letter as a follow-up to their discussion in Zurich and we are yet to write that correspondence,” he said.
“That letter will reach their offices as soon as possible so they can start looking into our proposal.”
Lefa is now negotiating with the English FA to extend their support to local teams and the association.
The FA supported local football by conducting administration courses and providing footballs and attire for national teams in southern Africa.
The FA is said to be livid after it received just two votes out of a possible 25 during elections to select the hosts for the 2018 World Cup.
The right to host the tournament was awarded to Russia.
The FA said despite what it had done “their support towards the development of world football” was not being recognised.
