Moorosi Tsiane
THE Matekane Group of Companies (MGC) will soon be unveiled as the new co-sponsors of the annual Independence Top4 tournament.
MGC will become the co-sponsors with Standard Lesotho Bank who earlier this year indicated that they would pull out if they did not get a partner after Metropolitan pulled last year.
Metropolitan and Standard Lesotho Bank have been co-sponsoring the tournament since 2011.
Things went south early this year when Standard Lesotho Bank told the Premier League Management Committee that would not proceed alone and gave the committee until the end of April 2019 to secure another sponsor.
However, by the end of April, the PLMC had still not found a co-sponsor and asked Standard Bank Lesotho for an extension.
And on Friday MGC head of corporate communications and marketing, ‘Mamotake Matekane confirmed the new partnership.
She however, said they would only sponsor the tournament for this season only with an extension option.
“We have been in talks with the PLMC and I can confirm that we will sponsor the tournament this year to the tune of M500 000,” Matekane said.
“For now, the partnership is only for this year because we need to ensure that the partnership works first before committing to a longer contract. So, we are starting with one year and if things go well, then maybe we can go back to the table and discuss the way forward.
“We still have our MGC Soccer Spectacular which we have committed to hold annually, so there are many things to consider before we can make any big commitment.”
PLMC spokesperson Moketsi Ramakatsa on the other hand, was evasive refusing to confirm the partnership but conceded that they had approached the company.
“MGC is one of the companies that we approached because we were desperate to get a sponsor in order to not lose Standard Lesotho Bank.
“For now, there is nothing to say except that our talks have been promising and we are hoping for positive feedback from MGC,” Ramakatsa said.