Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) has executed a Covid-19 forced decision to end the football season for all divisions with a few more clashes remaining.
The local football governing body announced the decision in a press statement last week Thursday. The association stated that the decision was reached after
almost a month of consultations between the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) regarding the future of the 2019/20
season. The NEC resolved that, “The 2019/2020 season ends henceforth on the 31st July 2020, the log standings of the Premier League, A Division and Women Super League be
confirmed as final as at the date of the suspension of the leagues by the Lesotho Football Association and that that Bantu FC are declared as champions
of the Econet Premier League (EPL) and shall represent Lesotho in the CAF Champions League (Confederation of African Football),” read the statement. In
the A-division, Manonyane FC (leaders of the Southern Stream) and CCX FC (leaders of the Northern Stream) were declared as the two A Division winners.
Lesotho Defense Force (LDF) Ladies FC were declared as the winners of the Women Super League (WSL). According to the statement, there will be no relegation in the Premier League, A Division
and WSL of the current season, but the two teams in the A Division will be promoted to the Premier League and two from the B Division will be promoted to
the A Division. Meanwhile, the competitions that arise as a result of the log standings (i. e. Top 4 and Top 8) at the time of the suspension of the leagues shall be used as a determining
factor. “As of the 2020/2021 until any other decision is taken, the Premier League shall have 16 teams with two teams from the A Division being promoted.
At the end of the 2020/2021 season, there will be two teams that will be relegated. The 2020/2021 season shall commence as soon as the government of Lesotho gives the green
light for sport to be practiced given the Covid-19 Pandemic. However, you are all advised to consider September 1st 2020, as the tentative start of the new season,” concluded the statement.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Informative Newspaper on Monday, the Champion coach, Bob Mafoso of Bantu FC expressed his delight about the outcome of the long negotiations
between footballing authorities. He stated that even though they were still willing to go on with the marathon and complete the league, a decision was
supposed to be made amid the Covid-19 scare. “However, we are still happy that were are champions because we deserved it, we worked very hard for it and we
are as happy as would be if we had completed the league,” he said. Mafoso went on to state that the campaign wasn’t that easy for them as he was new to his role, inheriting it
from a successful former Coach James Madidilane. As a result he said they were under pressure to perform and fight for positive results, something which they did successfully as they ended the league without even a single loss.
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