Moorosi Tsiane
LEBOHANG Thotanyana has bounced back as Lioli president after he was re-elected at the team’s annual general meeting in Berea on Sunday.
Thotanyana returns after his one-year absence along with vice presidents Hopolang Nathane and Mthakathi Mthoalo.
David Ramphalile, Chaka Chaka, Lebohang Selalome and Sello Monamoli were all elected as members of the executive committee.
Lioli finally held its elections on Sunday after a tense period between the supporters and patrons on one hand and the interim committee on the other.
The interim committee was led by Lephethasang Hlajoane Lesaoana who had been involved in a tussle for control of the club with Thotanyana and the team’s chief patron Sempe Khabasheane Masupha.
The Lesaoana led group went as far as petitioning the country’s courts to bar Thotanyana and Masupha from interfering with the club’s activities.
In an exclusive interview with the Lesotho Times on Sunday, Thotanyana thanked Lioli supporters for believing in him and said top of his priorities would be ensuring that the team becomes the force it used to be between 2009 and 2017.
“I thank Lioli supporters for believing in me… I am really humbled,” Thotanyana said.
“Time is no longer on our side. We must focus on club licensing and registration of players. All this must be done to ensure that we retain Lioli’s dignity and make it the force that it used to be years back when it used to dominate the local football.”
Thotanyana, who led Lioli to 16 trophies during his tenure as a president from 2008 until last year, said they would soon host an extra ordinary meeting to present their work plan to the supporters.
“We have asked for an extra ordinary meeting with the supporters after 30 days to update them on how we intend to go forward. We must also hire a coach so that we can also start signing players to boost our squad.”
He said they have also made some changes in the executive committee’s structure as they want to employ a full-time chief executive officer.
“There are some changes in our structure, we now want to engage a CEO on a full-time basis who will overlook all the administrative issues. The reason being that we no longer want the board to be involved in the day to day running of the team because we have learnt that it gives us problems.
“All the professional roles in the committee will now be held by hired professionals. We are still eager to appoint Chris Bullock as our CEO but things dragged for longer than we had expected and we are yet to hear whether or not he is still available because we know he is a busy man.
“We will also soon meet with the board to make certain decisions on what we want to do and how we want to achieve it. After this, we will be able to give the technical team a clear mandate… we want to fight to be in the top four come next season,” Thotanyana said.
