Moorosi Tsiane
PREMIER League Management Committee (PLMC) spokesperson Qamako Mahao says they have already identified four grounds to be used when the Econet Premier League starts next month.
LCS Ground, Ratjomose Ground, Maputsoe DIFA Ground and Setsoto Stadium will host the top flight games when the league opens on 5 December 2020.
Mahao told the Lesotho Times this week that due to Covid-19 prevention measures, they had to select grounds with high security where it would be easy to control the people who will access the facilities.
“According to our projections, we want to start on the first weekend of December but it hasn’t been finalised as yet,” Mahao said adding: “the fixtures have already been drawn but we are just awaiting a go ahead from the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA)”.
“We have identified Ratjomose, LCS, Maputsoe DIFA and Setsoto Stadium as the possible grounds to be used during this period. We tried to find grounds where it will be possible to control who accesses the facilities since there must be no spectators.”
There is a likelihood that some days, one venue my host up to three games as potential sponsors are offering live streaming the matches for the supporters.
“There is a possibility of having two or more matches played at the same venue because sponsors are proposing that they might stream the matches live. That will make it easy when several games are at the same venue.
“We however, must see how that can work because we also have to ensure that we don’t exceed the mandatory maximum of 60 people who must be at a stadium. That means the first match might start at 11am and as soon the game is over, the teams leave the stadium to make way for the next teams. However, these are just proposals and no final decisions have been made so far,” Mahao said.
The PLMC is also at an advanced stage in organising prizes for last season.
“The teams will soon get their monies because everything now is at an advanced stage. We are also hoping that at least by 20 November the awards for top performers would be handed over.”
The Likhopo manager could neither confirm nor deny whether or not Econet would continue sponsoring the league but said they are still working to increase the number of sponsors.
“Our teams’ first line of sponsorship is the supporters and now that they will not be allowed into the stadiums, it means they will be losing money. Therefore, we need to have as many companies investing in the sport as possible. We are also hoping to improve the number of competitions if we get the necessary sponsorship,” Mahao said.
