Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) estimates that the 2024 CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) and 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, which both begin this later year, will cost the association a whopping M31 million.
According to LEFA president Advocate Salemane Phafane, the budget for the CHAN qualifiers is M9 million while the World Cup qualifiers, which will be played until 2025, will cost up to M22 million.
Phafane said while the costs for the two competitions are enormous, LEFA are prepared to ensure Likuena and its players are competitive. He said last year LEFA decided not to enrol the team in the CHAN because they did not have financial support from the government and sports ministry.
That still has not changed and Phafane said that despite repeated requests, it has been years now since the ministry helped LEFA. “We are not ashamed to keep saying it is deliberate ignorance and malicious because what we are speaking is not Greek, it is not something that doesn’t happen in other countries.
We are talking about something that has been happening before, it happens in other countries. Us as LEFA, we are on our own. But we are not dying, make no mistake about it,” Phafane said.
Phafane said politicians use football to win votes but ignore the livelihood of the game once they are elected into power. “We will not stop saying they are ignoring their responsibilities,” Phafane said.
“When they asked for our votes, some were even hosting football tournaments pretending they have love for football and then after they are not helping, (but) we are not lamenting.
We will keep pushing and we will score successes with or without their assistance; (we will have success) with our boys, with our clubs, with the members of the community,” he said.
For the CHAN qualifiers, the association is budgeting for six games which is three home games and three away. The budget includes the hiring of stadiums in South Africa for Likuena’s home games.
Phafane confirmed Likuena will continue to host their games in South Africa as Setsoto Stadium still has not been fixed. Likuena have not been able to use the national stadium since 2021 when it was banned from hosting official international matches by Africa’s governing body, CAF.
According to preliminary information, the first round of the 2024 CHAN qualifiers will be played in September and October this year. Phafane said should a scenario arise where the ground is fixed quickly it would be most welcome.
For the World Cup qualifiers, Likuena will play five home and five away games. Lesotho has been drawn in Group C alongside Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe and Rwanda.
The 2026 World Cup has been expanded from 32 teams to 48 nations and the qualifying competition has also been expanded. The winners of each of the nine groups will qualify for the 2026 World Cup in North America.
The four best-ranked group runners-up will then compete in a play-off to determine which team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs to make it to the World Cup.
Whatever happens, Likuena are guaranteed to play 10 World Cup qualifying matches over a two-year span. “The second tournament we have registered the team for is the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
It’s going to be a long dusty road but it’s good for us, we are all about playing football,” Phafane said. “We are happy to have a tight programme that helps our players stay fit and get exposure they wouldn’t get playing here at home,” he added.
Phafane said LEFA will do all it can to finance Likuena who are just coming off a fantastic performance last month at the COSAFA Cup in South Africa where Lesotho finished second. Likuena will be hoping to take that momentum into their busy schedule of continental qualifiers.
“We will do everything in the book to ensure that these players play competitively with or without anyone’s support, but if someone wakes up and says (LEFA) cannot go on like this and help, we will welcome that,” he said.
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