MASERU — Former Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) public relations officer, Tšiu Monne, says the current executive committee should not stand for elections in August because it has failed.
Lefa is set to hold general elections in August while the presidential elections are scheduled for next year.
Monne who was the public relations officer for four years before he was replaced by Baba Malephane says the committee has failed to develop domestic football since taking over in 2008.
He alleges that instead of implementing what they promised during the election campaign, the committee members have undermined the development of the game in Lesotho.
“The current committee has failed us in football for the past four years and the honourable thing they can now do is to go,” Monne said on Tuesday.
“They must just not stand for elections in August because since they took office in 2008 things have gone from bad to worse.”
He said Lefa is broke and failing to pay employees because of the committee members’ inability to find sponsors.
“During our term at Lefa we achieved so many things and we were coping just fine financially.
“There was a never a time where the association was declared broke when the late Thabo Makakole was the president.”
The association is now broke because the committee is more in spending money than raising it, he said.
“We thought it was a positive change but everything is kaput in there, starting with the facility (Bambatha Tšita Sports Arena).”
Monne said the executive should have used Bambatha Tšita to generate income and improve the association’s financial position.
“During our time, Lefa was generating M1 million per year from that facility but they are even failing to raise M50 000.”
“The committee must not take glory in the current sponsorship by Vodacom Lesotho because they are just finishing what was started by the previous executive.
“They messed up everything from Matekane Group of Companies Cup to Vodacom Soccer Spectacular yet they still see nothing wrong with their actions,” Monne said.
He added that Lefa president Salemane Phafane must shoulder all the blame because everything went wrong under his leadership.
“I blame Ntate Phafane for everything that has gone wrong at Lefa. He has disappointed me and other people in the football fraternity because he is the overseer and so many things have turned out badly.”
Malephane however rejected Monne’s allegations as lies.
“He is not telling the whole truth because there were hiccups in Lefa’s state of finance even during their term.
“He must also consider Lefa’s financial status in general when they left office. They left a huge debt that we are still settling even now,” Malephane said.
Malephane said they were standing for elections in August and only the voters will decide if they are fit for another term.
“We are at liberty to stand for elections and only electors will choose if they still want us to lead them for the next four years,” he said.
“When he says we’ve failed, he should single out what we promised to do so that we can address it.
“I cannot talk about sponsors because we are in the middle of discussing it right now,” Malephane said.
He said Monne must not compare the state of Lefa’s finances in 2012 and 2004 because “right now everyone is hit by recession globally”.
