Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) has denied reports Setsoto Stadium has been banned from hosting international games by Africa’s governing body, CAF.
LEFA says Setsoto was left off CAF’s list of approved stadiums because it was not one of the stadiums inspected for the start of the next phase of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in June.
Lesotho was knocked out of the qualifiers in 2019 by Ethiopia and LEFA said it does not have any communication from CAF saying Setsoto has been barred.
LEFA said if Setsoto was banned, the association would have communicated the news to the Ministry of Sports because the stadium is the government’s property.
CAF has released a list of stadiums that have been approved to be used for international contests. Countries that don’t have an approved stadium have a blank space in front of their names and Lesotho is one of those countries.
There are some countries that will be playing in the qualifiers next month and their stadiums have not been approved. Those countries may have to play their games outside their borders or renovate their grounds before the matches begin.
There are nations that have had their main grounds rejected but in theory would still be able to use alternative grounds which are smaller. Africa’s final phase of World Cup qualifiers, which Lesotho is not part of as Likuena was knocked out in the preliminary round by Ethiopia, will start next month.
Forty countries are divided into 10 groups and they will go head-to-head with the winners of each group advancing to the play-off stage where five winners will book their tickets to the Qatar World Cup finals next year.
For example, neighbouring South Africa is in Group G with Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Ghana. They will have to top the group to reach the play-off stages. Setsoto Stadium which is a government facility, desperately needs a facelift, even without rumours of it being banned by CAF.
The national stadium has been left to decay for the last decade and it is not an international facility as things stand. In June 2020, Minister of Sports, Likeleli Tampane, said her ministry is going to renovate Setsoto Stadium so the national team can have a quality venue to play their games.
It’s been almost a year since she said that and nothing has been done yet with the (African Union Sports Council) AUSC Region 5 Games set to be hosted in Maseru only seven months away.
In October last year, the minister took a tour of the stadium and saw the state of the national stadium for the first time. Setsoto is still the same way it was back then. It is still leaking, ceilings are still falling, lights are still not working and it is still dirty.
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