Africa-Press – Eswatini. The dismal performance of the national team, Sihlangu, has not gone unnoticed by the religious community in the country.
Sihlangu have failed to qualify for any major tournament or won anything internationally, including the regional COSAFA Cup since its establishment in 1968. Its best achievement was a third-place finish in the regional tournament, the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), after two decades of participation. The League of African Churches President Bishop Samson Hlatjwako expressed concerns of the church on Thursday during the launch of the fifth edition of the Bible Society Mayoral Cup. Hlatjwako was speaking on behalf of the country’s church associations including the Conference of Churches and Council of Churches.
“Our national team, Sihlangu, is not making any progress for unknown reasons. The current standard of football is no match to the one that we witnessed in the past. There was a great zeal among our players, which excited the fans,” the staunch supporter of former elite side, Mhlambanyatsi Rovers lamented. “We have few tournaments in the country to produce competitive players. We appeal to the business individuals to sponsor clubs and the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) and Premier League of Eswatini (PLE),” he said much to a round of applause.
The bishop compared the situation to South Africa (SA), where he said the clubs and national teams were well financed. He cited an example where the Patrice Motsepe Foundation and Ithuba injected E8 million towards Banyana Banyana ahead of the 2023 Women’s World Cup and said Eswatini must be now having a sizeable number of players and coaches plying their trade internationally. He further appealed for more strategies to be implemented by all stakeholders to showcase the past glory of football in Eswatini to inspire this century’s crop of players. Hlatjwako believes that the standard could be higher now as players receive a salary, which was not the case in the past.
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