Moorosi Tsiane
LIOLI pocketed big in the Econet Soccer Spectacular last weekend taking home a whopping M164 201 after being crowned champions of the second edition of the tournament at Setsoto Stadium on Sunday.
This was despite LDF registering the most votes (100 124) while Lioli only managed to 72 989 votes to qualify for the tournament as the fourth team behind Bantu and Linare who got 79 553 and 75 680 votes respectively.
In June this year, Econet Telecom Lesotho working in partnership with the Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) launched the second edition of a pre-season tournament dubbed Econet Soccer Spectacular (ESS). The tournament was first introduced as a pilot in the 2018 pre-season window where four EPL teams that were voted into the competition by the supporters battled it out to become the debut champions.
“The principal inspiration behind ESS is to help local premier league clubs to raise funds that will support them to resume their league obligations as they start a new season,” a statement from Econet reads.
“It is the supporters and the fans that are important in generating these funds for the tournament, through their votes and match attendance.”
Initially, Econet Telecom Lesotho offered a 40 percent share of revenue generated from the SMSes but this was increased to 50 percent when the votes reached 500 000 last week. Additional to the revenue generated from ticket sales and 50 percent revenue from the votes, the four participating teams will still share the initially promised M200 000 in prizes.
The money was said to be refundable to Econet.
“This means that the top four teams in terms of votes pocket the following three prizes: the prize money played for, pro-rated revenue share from the ticket sales and 50 percent revenue from their votes.
“The other eight teams walk away with two prizes: pro-rated revenue share from the ticket sales and 50 percent revenue from their votes. The tickets were bundled with Econet Sk’haftin recharge voucher.
“Econet Telecom Lesotho management had a change of plans after the tourney deciding to deduct the event and Sk’haftin airtime costs only. The refundable M200 000 is injected back into the tournament to fund the top four participating teams as initially promised.”
Lioli got M100 000 for winning the tournament, M27 707 was their share from the voting and M27 707 from the ticket sales. All the money adds up to M164 201.
LDF, who finished third pocket M25 000 prize money and totaled M113 069. M50 062 was their share from voting while they also got M38 007 from ticket sales.
Bantu, who lost to Lioli in the final came third in terms of earning pocketing M119 975 while Linare, who finished in the tournament after losing to LDF in losers’ final bagged M91 568.
