Moorosi Tsiane

THE national volleyball teams’ dream of participating in this year’s All Africa Games which will be hosted by Morocco in August, lies in limbo as it is still unclear whether or not they will participate in the qualifiers in Mozambique next weekend.

The teams’ training sessions were called off last weekend due to financial constraints.

According to the Lesotho Volleyball Association (LVA) public relations officer Buller Phalatse they are still uncertain whether or not the two teams will make it to qualifiers which start next Friday in Maputo.

He said they had assembled a male and female team for the qualifiers but have had to stop preparations due to financial problems.

“We had assembled two teams which started weekend training camps on 4 May but last weekend the sessions had to be suspended as the association didn’t have money,” Phalatse said.

“At the moment, there is nothing that we can do rather than wait for the Lesotho Sport and Recreation Commission (LSRC). We are keeping our fingers crossed because should we fail to send the team to Mozambique, it means we would have failed to qualify for the All Africa Games.”

Phalatse said the association has been providing food and transport at the weekend camps but now they have run out of funds.

“We have two teams made of 18 players in the male category while the female team has 12 players. They started their preparations in the first weekend of this month but unfortunately the sessions had to be suspended due to lack of resources,” Phalatse said.

He said they have already finished all the logistical planning for the Mozambique trip and were only left with making the payments.

“Everything was done; bookings for hotels and registrations for the tournament. What we have to do know is to pay for everything but we are still waiting for the LSRC to give us the way forward.

“This issue has caused a lot of inconvenience because as much as the players still train with their respective teams on weekdays, they still had to meet as the national team to get to know and understand each along with their coaches. However, that it is not happening and time is not on our side either.

“We are now heading to a situation where we will send an ill-prepared for the tournament,” Phalatse said.