Moorosi Tsiane

LAST week we carried a story in which the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) refuted widespread rumours that they owed the national under-20 side allowances for the COSAFA Cup in Zambia where the team did well to reach the final which they narrowly lost to South Africa.

LeFA Secretary General, Mokhosi Mohapi, said the association never promised anything and went as far as challenging Makoanyane XI players to publicly come forward with their claims.

“If anyone says they were promised those monies that person should not hide but come out in the open and name the day and the person who promised them,” Mohapi said in an interview with the Sunday Express last week.

Well Ntate Mohapi, it neither here nor there that you promised or did not promise the lads anything for the sterling job they did in outing the country on the regional football map.

This is the second group to ever reach the finals on the regional tourney after the class of 2005 that was under the mentorship of Seephephe Matete.

Thirteen years ago we narrowly lost to Madagascar in the final and we suffered a similar heartbreak in December 2017 when we went down to South Africa.

It was however a stellar campaign in which we defied all odds, holding our own against the likes of Zimbabwe, Namibia and guest nation, Uganda en route to the final.

All of this was achieved despite the less than ideal preparations the team had owing to an interplay of various factors I will not detail here.

LeFA says it did not promise anyone anything for doing well and LeFA did not need to.

That notwithstanding, one would have hoped that LeFA would have still rewarded the boys.

Could it be the case that LeFA does not see the importance of motivating the lads or at least give a token of appreciation for the hard work they have put in in Zambia?

I have met and spoken to several players who were in that squad and they are so disappointed that their hard work was not recognised by the football mother body.

The senior national team has received bonuses even after below par performances and logic would dictate that Makoanyane XI who made us proud certainly deserve something.

To make matters worse and to add salt into the junior team’s wounds, LeFA on Wednesday held an awards ceremony for the senior Likuena side for their outstanding performance in reaching the semi-finals of last year’s COSAFA tourney in South Africa.

No one will begrudge Likuena because they also did well. LeFA may tell us and rightly so, that the money for those awards came from COSAFA as the Fair Play Award for the senior team. But still the junior team will feel hard done.

My advice to LeFA is that they must tread carefully lest they demotivate the players who will end up refusing to play for the national teams.

People always call for patriotism from footballers but does it pay the bills?

I sympathise and empathise with the boys because they deserve much more for making Basotho and LeFA proud.