Pascalinah Kabi
MASERU — A serious cash crunch could force Lesotho to pull out of the qualifiers for the Caf Under-20 Youth Championships, the Sunday Express has learnt.
The youth tournament will be held in Algeria next year.
Makoanyane XI — as Lesotho’s Under-20 team is affectionately known — is scheduled to take on Zambia in the first round of the qualifiers in July at Setsoto Stadium.
The return leg will be played in mid-August in Lusaka, Zambia.
But Under-20 team manager, Thabo Pule said the team’s participation in the qualifiers is now hanging in balance as they need to raise an extra M400 000 for the games.
“We will be forced to withdraw from these games if we don’t get funding,” Pule said.
The team needs M800 000 for their participation in the qualifiers.
“We already have M400 000 set aside for the team but we need an additional M400 000,” Pule said.
Pule said the cash-strapped Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) was still battling to raise funds for the team from well-wishers.
He added that they had approached a number of potential sponsors to help them raise the extra M400 000 but without much success.
“It would be embarrassing for us to enter the team into the qualifiers and later on withdraw because of lack of funds,” Pule said.
Meanwhile, Pule said the team would start preparations for the qualifiers next month.
“We are scheduled to start training on June 4 and we’ve a very good team that would make the whole nation very proud,” he said.
Makoanyane XI last year performed dismally at the Caf Under-20 Youth Championships finals in South Africa.
The team was knocked out in the first round.
This was after they had performed exceptionally well during the qualifiers.