Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Vodacom Premier League season is on pause and the league finds itself in a quandary. The season has been suspended for almost a month now and there is still no word as to what will happen next.
The 2020/21 campaign was already way behind after an initial four-month stoppage that lasted from January until May because of the pandemic. After a jam-packed run between May and July, the season was again shelved last month because of rising Covid-19 cases in the country.
The question now is if the league season will continue or be scrapped. There are still a lot of matches to be played and losing a month of play has not helped because the league was already facing an almighty squeeze to fit matches into the calendar.
One of the main reasons there has been no decision is because the Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) has been determined to finish the 2020/21 season even though October, the initial projected date for the start of the 2021/22 campaign, is now a month away. Whatever the PLMC decides it has to factor in the health of the players.
Players were already being pushed to breaking point and there was a notable increase in muscular injuries this season compared to previous years which was the predictable result of a shortened off-season programme and a packed schedule of games that saw clubs play three times a week for almost two months.
This year the Lesotho top-flight saw the most congested fixture list the local game has ever seen and the broader question is how the league will manage if it plans to restart again.
Of course, there are obviously major financial factors at play. Without gate receipts from games clubs are on the brink of bankruptcy. Earlier this month Lioli president Lebohang Thotanyana revealed the Teyateyaneng giants spent over M1 million per year, for example.
“Our payroll is close to M1.5 million per year, that’s how much we have to cough up every year, we pay way over M100 000 in a month,” Thotanyana said.
There is also an added danger that the few sponsors in local football may leave if there is no football to market their brands for a prolonged period of time. There is also the question of how the league sponsors Vodacom Lesotho would be affected.
The current season has only played 53 percent of its fixtures which is way below the agreed threshold with Vodacom who took over sponsorship of the premiership last September.
Vodacom is in the first year of a three-year deal with the league and if the league is aborted, a lot of issues would have to be clarified as there is no obvious winner at the moment.
The PLMC is also afraid of a repeat of last year’s drama when Matlama filed case after case and threatened court action when Bantu were awarded the league title after a truncated 2019/20 season. Even so, football leaders need to continue cautiously and intelligently.
It is in everyone’s interest for football to survive this brutal period and, as painful as that may be to the PLMC, the best way for that to happen might be to scrap this season and look to start again and afresh.
Lesotho has already suffered consequences from the impasse because no club will compete in the CAF Champions League which is a blow for the country. A decision has to be made very soon.
Last week the PLMC it said needs more information and “extensive consultations” with clubs before making a decision on the current football season but, as time goes on, it is putting the new 2021/22 season at risk because it may not start on time.
Covid-19 has had a tremendous impact on society and economy, and that also applies football. The Covid-19 crisis has put a serious spanner in the works for local football and it will take several years to return to pre-crisis levels. However, waiting and procrastinating on making decisions will not help matters at all.
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