Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Women’s Super League (WSL) champions, Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) Ladies, will return to the international stage after being enrolled in the 2023 CAF Women’s Champions League COSAFA which also serves as the region’s qualifier for the CAF Women’s Champions League.
The good news for LDF Ladies was revealed this week by the Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) which confirmed they will compete in the COSAFA Zonal qualifiers later in the year, most likely in August in South Africa. The qualifiers are played in a tournament format. Teams are drawn into two groups before a knockout stage.
In the inaugural tournament in 2021, which was also the first time LDF went international, the Lesotho champions were drawn in a difficult group with Double Actions Ladies (Botswana), Manzini Wanderers (Eswatini) and South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies who went on to win the whole thing.
In 2022, LDF Ladies were not enrolled by LEFA. LEFA said LDF Ladies will return to the international stage where FIFA will be funding its Member Associations as part of the legacy for the 2023 Women’s World Cup that will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand next month.
There is hope that LDF Ladies will do better this year after a brilliant season in the WSL where they went the whole season unbeaten and won every point on offer.
If LDF Ladies manage to get out of their group that will represent big improvement from 2021 when they were eliminated from the group stages with just a point.
When their successful WSL season ended last month, LDF head coach Lengana Nkhethoa said his players would not rest and would start preparing for the CAF Women’s Champions League COSAFA Qualifier competition by training and playing friendly matches outside the country.
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