Leemisa Thuseho
THE senior national team, Likuena, will officially don its new Umbro away jersey when they face Zambia’ in an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier first leg match this Sunday.
The match will be played at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in the Copperbelt Province in Zambia.
Today’s match will see Likuena donning the green jersey with two white and blue vertical hoops in-front and plain blue short sleeves.
The new Likuena kit was launched on Monday at an event at Bambatha Tšita Sport Arena in Maseru.
The kit also includes a white home jersey with blue sleeves plus two blue and green horizontal hoops in front. There is also an alternate or ceremonial blue jersey with green sleeves plus two white and green horizontal hoops in-front.
According to the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) secretary-general, Mokhosi Mohapi, the new kit was not very different from the one which the team has been using since 2019 when LeFA signed a deal with Umbro as their official kit supplier.
He said one notable difference was that the new jerseys did not have the usual Umbro motifs on the shoulder.
“We have a new jersey with few notable differences as compared to the previous one,” said Mohapi.
“One of the differences is that the new one doesn’t have the Umbro motifs on the shoulder,” he explained.
“The previous white home jersey has a blue colour surrounding the neck but the new one no longer has that colour, it is all white. Again the hoops are a bit thin as compared to the previous jersey.”
Mohapi said LeFA received funding from the world football governing body, FIFA, to buy the kit.
LeFA spent about M1 million to secure the kit from the apparel giant, he said.
After today’s game, Likuena will host Zambia in the second leg of the qualifiers on 26 March at Dobsonville Stadium, South Africa. Likuena is playing its official matches in South Africa because Setsoto Stadium is still suspended by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) due to its bad state.
