By Mikia Kalati
Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) president, Salemane Phafane, retained his position as the association top boss defeating his vice president, Lebohang Thotanyana during the special congress held at Bambatha Tšita Sports Arena last Saturday.
It is only fair that we congratulate the veteran administrator and wish him luck as he begins a new term as Lefa president.
Phafane may have won comfortably, getting 37 votes against 12 for Thotanyana, but he surely has a big task at hand to prove to the football fraternity that he indeed deserves another term at the helm of the football governing body.
It will also be interesting to see if he and Thotanyana can put their egos aside and work together to serve the football community.
Thotanyana remains his second vice president at Lefa and is also the chairman of the premier league but there is no doubt they need to regain each other’s trust and do what is best for football in this country.
I believe that one way to ensure successful implementation of policies is by putting the right people in place in order to achieve the intended goals. Youth development is the one area that Phafane must address as a matter of urgency.
And of course we cannot forget that a report from Fifa has indicated that the Lefa technical director, Seephephe Matete, is unfit to be heading that position and Phafane must now hold the bull by the horns and get qualified personnel to head the technical department.
There is a lot that did not go well for Lefa in the last four years and Phafane will be the first to admit that the association needs a major shake-up to start functioning properly especially in the technical department where more work needs to be done to avoid the shambles within our youth structures.
The other aspect that needs serious attention is getting sponsors backing football in this country. At the moment the A division league is still without a sponsor for a second successive year which for me is a cause for concern.
I feel that the cooperate world has lost interest in sponsoring football due to the lack transparency that has seen the association on more than one occasion going public that they are broke.
We all know that there are some individuals within the association that have failed to account for the finances of the association and unless Phafane comes hard on them, then the cooperate world will continue to distance themselves from Lefa.
There is also a need for the Lefa president to make sure that the Cosafa Cup standards where Likuena reached the quarterfinals of the regional competition are maintained.
Likuena went on to beat Sudan 3-1 in their last World Cup qualifier in what was their first victory away from home in over decades of playing in such important qualifiers.
I feel that if we can be able to play friendly matches regularly during the Fifa dates against quality opposition then I do not see why we cannot dream of qualifying for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
I would also like to congratulate Pati Mareka who last week defeated long serving Lesotho Amateur Athletics Association (LAAA) President, Mokebe Maketela to become the new athletics body’s president.
Just like Lefa, LAAA has had its own demons that have presented a major threat to the development of the sport and we can only hope that Mareka is the man to bring stability to the association.
