Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) has introduced new rules clamping down on the number of foreign players eligible to start a match in the Vodacom Premier League.
The new rules are effective from July 1 after which Premier League clubs will only be allowed to register a maximum of five foreign players and this refers to players who are ineligible to represent Lesotho at national team level because they hold non-Lesotho passports or citizenry.
This rule takes into account players who will be de-registered by a club. That means should a club de-register a foreign player, this will not free up a foreign player space if the team had already registered five players.
Only three of the five foreign players that are registered by a club can be named in the match-day squad, and this is irrespective of whether the players are in the starting 11 or start as substitutes.
A similar rule will apply in the A Division and other lower leagues where clubs will only be allowed to register a maximum of three foreigners. On match-days, clubs will only be permitted one of the three foreign players in their match-day squads.
LEFA announced their plans to introduce this new rule four weeks ago during their Strategic Framework Session and the move was made in order to increase more slots for Basotho.
With the current rules, over 50 foreigners play each weekend and occupy key positions that Likuena could benefit from if Basotho were playing instead.
At the time, LEFA’s secretary general, Mokhosi Mohapi, said while the federation does not want to discriminate against foreign players, the influx of foreign players has become a problem for the national team, Likuena.
“The problem is that the most key positions in the league that can represent Likuena are played by foreigners.
Go to big teams – Bantu, Linare, Matlama – if we say: ‘let’s try to replace (Lesotho captain) Basia (Makepe) as a centreback’, whom can we replace him with, because the centrebacks are foreigners.
If we try to find a replacement for (Motebang Sera) at centre-forward, (the strikers at big clubs) are foreigners,” he said. “I am proposing we reduce the number to three (foreign players) that start a match.
We cannot discriminate against foreigners because they are coming to help us, but we are realising that we are not performing well with the national team, (so) let’s increase the slots for Basotho,” he said.
With this new resolution LEFA is sticking to its guns to limit the number of expatriate players who are actively playing every weekend. Now that more spots have been opened for the local talent, more Basotho will get opportunities to play.
These new rules have not gone down well with Vodacom Premier League clubs with Bantu being the first to react. Speaking to Radio Lesotho, Bantu’s vice-president Panyane Phiri said the move is typical of the association.
He said LEFA never holds talks with stakeholders before making decisions. Phiri’s outbursts are a bit surprising because the Strategic Framework Session the association held was attended by all stakeholders including team representatives. Clubs had a chance to challenge this new resolution when it was proposed by LEFA, but nobody did.
For More News And Analysis About Lesotho Follow Africa-Press
