Mikia Kalati
THE sponsors of league giants Bantu and Matlama namely Alliance Insurance and Metropolitan Lesotho respectively, have collaborated to come up with a M50 000 incentive for the winners of the duo’s clash tomorrow.
The two sides clash at Setsoto Stadium in match that could seal the fate of the 2018/19 league title.
The representatives of the two companies announced this at a press conference in Maseru this week saying they will each fork out M25 000 to reward the side that emerges victorious tomorrow.
However, the two teams will not get anything if the match ends in a draw.
Alliance Insurance are the long-time sponsors of Matlama while Metropolitan has also been in a partnership with Bantu for several years.
Metropolitan Lesotho Brand Manager Sepinare Lenkoe told the media that the incentive is an initiative by the two companies to uplift the standards of football in the country as well as giving back to the community.
“As you all know, Metropolitan Lesotho and Alliance Insurance have been involved a lot in soccer and we felt that for a game of such a high magnitude, we should do something because football unites people,” Lenkoe said.
“We came up with this initiative before approaching the Premier League Management Committee and fortunately, they loved the idea.
“They also discussed it with the clubs and this is why we are here today.”
Metropolitan Lesotho last year announced that they were withdrawing their sponsorship from the Independence Cup, but Sepinare said his company remains committed towards the improving the standards of football in the country.
“We have been in operation for the last 52 years and we always want to give back to the community in a meaningful way,” the Metropolitan Lesotho brand manager told the media.
Alliance Insurance’s Makhozi Foko echoed the same sentiments adding that sports play a vital role in uniting the Basotho nation.
“The main thing here is sports, which plays a big role in uniting us as a nation.
“We sponsor three premier league teams and we felt that we should come on board on the initiative as one of the teams, Matlama, is on the brink of winning the league and will be playing against another big team, Bantu.
“We maybe competitors as the two companies but we work well together and we are calling on Basotho to come in their numbers on Saturday (tomorrow) to support the big game,” ,” Foko said.
Premier League chairperson Ikarabele Sello said he is happy to see the two companies joining forces towards the improvement of local soccer.
“It’s an honour for us as the Premier League Management Committee to be part of such an initiative. It’s unusual for two companies that are known as rivals to be working together for such an initiative and we hope that others can follow in your footsteps.
“We need to work together to continue to improve the standards of football in the country.
“We encourage the two teams to go all out for a win. This will surely come in handy for our clubs because they need the money for their day-to-day needs.
“On behalf of PLMC and the clubs, I would like to thank the two companies for their continued support to football,” Sello said.
