{"id":23742,"date":"2023-01-07T09:46:43","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T09:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tough-times-hit-lifofane"},"modified":"2023-01-07T11:16:46","modified_gmt":"2023-01-07T11:16:46","slug":"tough-times-hit-lifofane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/tough-times-hit-lifofane","title":{"rendered":"Tough times hit Lifofane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>For the past three seasons, Lifofane have been one of the most impressive teams in the Vodacom Premier League. Their style of play and the calibre of coaches they have employed have raised the club\u2019s standard of football and showed other so-called teams how to compete.<\/p>\n

The Butha-Buthe side was promoted to the elite league in 2019 and their 2019\/20 debut campaign was a remarkable success with Lifofane not only finishing sixth in the league, but also winning the inaugural Matekane Group of Companies (MGC) Top 4 tournament in Mants\u030conyane.<\/p>\n

In the following two seasons Lifofane established themselves as a tough fixture on the schedule but despite their recent successes, the past year has been a toil.<\/p>\n

The club is now on its knees and was on the brink of being sold at the beginning of this season because the owners could not afford the expenses of a Premier League club.<\/p>\n

After an outcry from the Butha-Buthe community, the owner decided to keep the team but they are struggling to keep it afloat. With no sponsors, the expenses of running a football club have become overwhelming on the club\u2019s management.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s general manager, Lets\u030colo Maliehe, spoke to thepost last Saturday and shared the financial struggles the club is facing. He said Lifofane are still feeling the effects of Covid-19 and that the pandemic has affected top-flight teams more than they are willing to admit.<\/p>\n

The problems are evident on the pitch through the performances of the team. After 14 games, Lifofane are 12th on the table and have collected just 11 points.<\/p>\n

Currently, they are not on pace to match the 27 and 28 points tally they achieved in the past two seasons. \u201cThe main challenge is money, you cannot run a Premier League team in any way without money,\u201d Maliehe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the prize money for our league, we spend more than we get. We are here for the love of the game, not because its business or because we are getting something,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Lifofane play their 15 home matches at Butha-Buthe Pitso Ground while for each game they play outside the district they fork out M3 000 for transport which totals M45 000 for their 15 away games.<\/p>\n

This expense does not match the prize money the four bottoms placed teams get which is around M40 000. The M45 000 also excludes other costs such as food and the money the club spends to transport players to training.<\/p>\n

Per day, Lifofane spends close to M300 on transport only. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have money and you are running a team it means you don\u2019t have a team that is why we wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe truly wanted to sell it because it is not a community team, saw that there is no way this team would survive without money.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there were people that were crying, we understood and we are struggling with it again,\u201d Maliehe said. Maliehe said it is disheartening that the club\u2019s hard work is going by the wayside because of their dire financial straits.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the standard we put this team at before Covid-19 that is why we were ready to let go, you could see our standard was high and we could compete for the league (before Covid-19),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started with no one getting paid, we sat down with the players that if you want to play for Lifofane you have to know we don\u2019t have money, but if you have problems, we will have to come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your parents are sick, we know you don\u2019t earn money, we will have to help,\u201d Maliehe said.<\/p>\n

Maliehe said Lifofane were able to make little money from transfer fees before the pandemic such as the sale of John Mofokeng to Linare, but since then they have not been able to.<\/p>\n

Players have been leaving for free to join clubs of their choice. He said they plan to reinforce the team in January with younger players who can be developed and serve the club better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are on a mission to reinforce our team in January with young players, we don\u2019t want old players, truth be told our football is not going anywhere because we rely on the same players,\u201d Maliehe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe trust bringing our own players; if you look at it, a lot of teams come to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Linare we have about four players who came from Lifofane, Lioli we have players.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. For the past three seasons, Lifofane have been one of the most impressive teams in the Vodacom Premier League. Their style of play and the calibre of coaches they have employed have raised the club\u2019s standard of football and showed other so-called teams how to compete. The Butha-Buthe side was promoted to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,246,245,870],"class_list":["post-23742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-vodacom"],"yoast_head":"\nTough times hit Lifofane - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the past three seasons, Lifofane have been one of the most impressive teams in the Vodacom Premier League. 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