Moorosi Tsiane
LESOTHO Football Association (LeFA) youth development officer Mohaila Letseka says they are contemplating setting up an under-15 league.
Letseka said this on the back of the two tournaments LeFA hosted on Wednesday in Maputsoe and on Friday in Mohale’s Hoek. Teams from different districts contested in the tournament.
Berea and Leribe 2 qualified for the finals and will face Quthing and Mafeteng Urban on a yet to be announced date.
“We started with this tournament on Wednesday where we had 16 teams from each region and the top two teams have qualified for the finals whose dates are yet to be announced,” Letseka said.
He said they have divided the country into North and South regions, where each region has eight teams.
“We are hoping to launch the League in September this year where we will be having eight teams from each region playing against each other to book a spot in the Top4 finals,” Letseka said.
Letseka said this will be their pilot project and teams will only play once against each other.
“It is something new that we feel is important to keep players active from an early age. Because it is a pilot programme, they will be playing in a single leg format and maybe next year things will change and they will play each other twice,” Letseka said.
He said the programme is meant to develop players for the national teams adding they have also engaged the national under-17 coach Halemakale Mahlaha so that he can use the tournament to identify talent.
“We have decided to take the under 17-coach with us to this tournament for him to identify players for his team.
“He has also been helping the coaches in those regions on how to groom the players because we want to develop their playing style.”
He said before the league starts in September, they are going to hold a FIFA Youth coaching course for the coaches working with the development teams.
“We are trying to focus on development and see that we get things right from the grassroots. There is going to be a youth coaching course for the development coaches because we want to empower them,” Letseka said.