MASERU — It was supposed to be the rebirth of Lesotho football, but 34 minutes into the second half of the Matlama versus Lioli encounter on Sunday gunshots were fired and the game was stopped.
All hell broke loose among supporters and the running battles spilled onto the nearby streets.
In the end two people suffered gunshot wounds and many others were injured as a league match between the country’s top sides turned into a bloodbath.
The question is simple.
What will it take for those with the power to change things to act?
A death at a football match?
That certainly almost happened on Sunday.
At Sunday’s game not only was there no demarcation of seats between fans of the rival teams but there wasn’t any security at a match that was always going to produce fireworks.
The ground itself resembles a dump situated in the middle of a rundown taxi rank.
Indeed it is fortunate there was no stampede of fans because there is only one entrance into the “stadium”.
Last week referees were insisting they would not officiate any games involving Majantja after match officials were attacked by irate Majantja fans at a match against Linare last month.
Referees were also threatened after Majantja lost to Likhopo.
More and more people look to take out their frustrations at football games on referees, who risk their lives for a paltry M100 a match.
Referees need to be protected because, simply, without them there is no football.
Sunday’s violence on the other hand was inevitable.
There are serious questions that need to be asked.
How was a fan allowed to enter the ground with a firearm?
Why do fans continue to be allowed to enter grounds with beer bottles?
The government remains idle when it comes to improving the state of our football grounds.
All that is needed at least are perimeter fences.
No one is asking for 50 000-seat stadiums because no one seems interested in improving the state of the game in Lesotho.
Pitso Ground is a perfect example.
The pitch only has patches of grass.
There are no proper seating areas for fans.
But most alarmingly the pitch is accessible to any and every irate fan that chooses to enter the field.
Exactly a year after the Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) introduced stewards at football games there is still no effective security at games.
The situation remains the same as it was 12 months ago.
That is the most alarming fact — that no progress has been made.
The arrival of Vodacom Lesotho as a sponsor of football has predictably not waved a magic wand over the football landscape.
One would have thought the prospect of the upcoming World Cup would have provided a kick-start to improve the local game but on Sunday two people could have died at a football match.
Lefa has to take the blame for their criminally lax attitude towards safety at games and their failure to bring Lesotho in line with the rest of the region where incidents such as Sunday’s are a thing of the past.
Simply put, the Mohale Declaration has to be fast-tracked.
The roadmap has a deadline date of 2014 but the fast-forward button needs to be pressed.
Imagine a Lesotho where football supporters could look forward to weekend games with seats, security and grass on the pitch.
Just a few examples.
Angola’s boom since the end of a 20-year civil war in 2002 can in a way be attributed to the success of their basketball and football teams.
Ivory Coast’s national football side remains the hope of a nation stricken by civil war.
And even in neighbouring South Africa, successes of the rugby and football teams in the mid-90 were cornerstones in the country’s history.
If that sounds too simple, that’s because it is.
And there is no reason Lesotho should remain the slowest developing sporting country in Africa — if not the world.
