{"id":7335,"date":"2021-12-18T11:41:01","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T11:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed"},"modified":"2021-12-18T12:05:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T12:05:02","slug":"plmc-wants-league-season-completed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed","title":{"rendered":"PLMC wants league season completed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) remains committed to restarting and finishing the 2020\/21 Vodacom Premier League season but says a decision cannot be made yet.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s spokesperson, Qamako Mahao, said the PLMC is still looking for an opportunity to resume the season. He said the league cannot afford a repeat of last year when the season was canned with a third of the schedule still to play because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

When that happened Bantu, who were leading the standings, were crowned champions but the decision was followed by a series of complaints and court cases from runners-up Matlama. Mahao would not explicitly say it, but the PLMC appears determined to play this season to a finish.<\/p>\n

The pandemic interrupted 2020\/21 season had just entered its second round of fixtures when football was stopped last week by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro due to rising positive cases of Covid-19 in the country.<\/p>\n

As things stand, Matlama lead the league with 40 points from 16 games, three points ahead of champions Bantu who have played a game less. Judging from last year\u2019s squabbles, ending the season now and crowning a champion is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n

Mahao hinted as much, which is probably why the PLMC appears desperate to resume league play as soon as possible. \u201cWe cannot afford to experience what we experienced last year, it\u2019s becoming a problem now and a problem has a solution,\u201d Mahao said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we had to stop during the season and, at the end, we had such long cases that cost a lot of money rather than funding activities that enhance our product which is football.<\/p>\n

People are quick (to call) for a conclusion,\u201d he added. Last week, Prime Minister Majoro announced Lesotho is moving back to Purple Colour because of an increase in Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n

Under this level all contact sport is banned which means football is on hold for the second time this season after pausing from January until May because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Discussions have already started amongst fans with some saying the season must be ended, but the league is not in a hurry. The season was set to be concluded on September 4 and that end date may be extended.<\/p>\n

However, it is anyone\u2019s guess when football will be able to resume. Covid-19 has hit local football and to date Matlama has the highest known number of positive cases.<\/p>\n

Last week the club announced that two technical members and seven players had tested positive. Club activities were immediately put on hold and individuals with positive results went into self-isolation.<\/p>\n

The test results came after the Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) ordered mandatory testing for all Premier League and A-Division teams. From the results submitted to LEFA, the average of positive cases at club level is above five percent which Mahao admitted does not look good.<\/p>\n

Several teams are yet to submit their data and Mahao said just because football is on hold, that does not mean the PLMC no longer needs tests to be done. Mahao said it is important the league knows the level of infection and who has recovered when the opportunity to resume play arises.<\/p>\n

The PMLC, however, has not had any talks with the National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) over whether football teams can be included in the next group of vaccinations.<\/p>\n

Last week, Lesotho received 302 400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine as a donation from the United States government. The US embassy said the donation is the third of many deliveries that will be allocated to Lesotho in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Previously when LEFA asked NACOSEC for sport to be prioritised for vaccines it did not happen and there is no guarantee it will happen now. However, Mahao held out hope and suggested the government should use sport as a yardstick to measure the impact of Covid-19, especially in the villages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be nice if the government can use sports as the yardstick to measure the impact of Covid, that would be very good, especially because football is organised,\u201d Mahao said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get to the district there are DIFAs (District Football Associations) and those DIFAs have statistics of every team in the league.<\/p>\n

So, if you want to check just how much the impact of Covid is in the districts, you go to structures that are already organised like these ones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) remains committed to restarting and finishing the 2020\/21 Vodacom Premier League season but says a decision cannot be made yet. The league\u2019s spokesperson, Qamako Mahao, said the PLMC is still looking for an opportunity to resume the season. He said the league cannot afford a repeat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[233,246,245,365],"class_list":["post-7335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-premier-league"],"yoast_head":"\nPLMC wants league season completed - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) remains committed to restarting and finishing the 2020\/21 Vodacom Premier ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PLMC wants league season completed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) remains committed to restarting and finishing the 2020\/21 Vodacom Premier ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-18T11:41:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-18T12:05:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/12\/img-61bdce4e75c53.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"PLMC wants league season completed\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-18T11:41:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-18T12:05:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed\"},\"wordCount\":749,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/12\/img-61bdce4e75c53.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Premier League\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/plmc-wants-league-season-completed\",\"name\":\"PLMC wants league season completed - 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