Moorosi Tsiane
THE Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) made a statement last Friday that its technical director Leslie Notši would continue to oversee the senior soccer team during its preparations for their 2023 World Cup qualifiers against Ethiopia in the first weekend of September.
This is despite LeFA secretary general Mokhosi Mohapi’s earlier comments that they had to remove Notši from the caretaker coach position so that he could focus more on his technical director job.
The veteran mentor led the team for its CHAN qualifier triumph over South Africa two weeks ago.
Notši was appointed to lead the team in place of Moses Maliehe, who has been battling ill-health since May this year.
The team was eventually led by Mpitsa Marai and James Madidilane for the COSAFA tournament in Durban in June before Notši took over for CHAN.
LeFA needs to make up its mind on who they want to coach this team as soon as possible so that Notši can go back to his job.
There have been rumours that LeFA is keen to engage former South Africa senior national team assistant coach Thabo Senong.
I do not want to focus on whether Senong is the right candidate for the job or not.
My point is that it is now clear that Maliehe will not be coming back to coach the team since LeFA has gone public in its search for a new coach; so they need to make up their mind and appoint a coach who can focus only on the team.
Likuena have a busy schedule starting from next month with back to back World Cup qualifiers against Ethiopia.
They will also play Zimbabwe on 22 September in the first leg of another round of CHAN qualifiers with the return leg set for the 18 to 20 October weekend in Harare.
In November, Likuena faces another acid test against Sierra Leone and Nigeria in the World Cup qualifiers.
This is without doubt a tight schedule which will need proper planning and preparations and I doubt that Notši would do justice doubling as technical director. Its either one or both portfolios will suffer.
If LeFA can’t get Senong because they don’t have a budget as seems to be the case, then they must opt for a coach they can afford.
