Moorosi Tsiane
THE Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) will push for the completion of the soccer season despite the new lockdown “to avoid chaos”.
PLMC spokesperson Qamako Mahao said this in an interview with the Sunday Express this weekend.
His statement comes in the wake of the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA’s) decision to suspend all football activities on Thursday. The move came after Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro’s announcement that all contact sports have been suspended indefinitely.
Immediately after Majoro’s announcement, LeFA also released a statement announcing the suspension of all its activities.
“Today, Thursday 22 July 2021, Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro effected restrictions aimed at reducing the rising coronavirus infections experienced in the country in the past few days,” the LeFA statement said.
“The LeFA national executive committee, pursuant to its support to the government’s efforts in fighting Covid-19 to save, has resolved to indefinitely suspend all competitions under until further information is released upon the advice of the government. Your clubs should suspend all group training until further notice.”
Matlama are currently leading the 16-team log table with 38 points from 16 matches while Bantu are second with 37 points from 15 matches.
“We have been ready because we were also aware of the high infection figures. We were actually going to apply for the suspension of the league to LeFA as we have above five percent infections in our teams,” Mahao said.
LeFA had ordered that each team test its players last week and Mahao said the infection rate was high in the nine clubs that have submitted their reports.
He however, said they were adamant that the league would be played to completion full to avoid the confusion that obtained last year. Last year, Bantu were declared winners before the end of the season’s games. The decision did not sit well with Matlama who went on to protest.
“It’s better that we complete at a later stage. We will be happy if all games are played. We don’t want a repeat of last year’s situation.”
When the league was ended last season, Bantu were topping the table with 50 points while second-placed Matlama were trailing by 16 points. Both sides had played 18 matches.
Mahao said they will be monitoring the situation and will make recommendations later.
“For now, we will just keep on monitoring the situation as the activities are suspended. We will make our recommendations at a later stage to the LeFA national executive committee,” Mahao said.
