Chris Theko
The president of Lesotho University and College Sports Association, Tšepang Ntutle says he was shocked to learn of his association’s exclusion from the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA)’s structures that received the Covid-19 relief fund.
LeFA announced through the Secretary General the structures that would receive the second batch of the relief fund from International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), provided to member associations to assist them in the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that has seen sports activity being interrupted.
Mantutle told Newsday Sport that they were not considered for the relief fund from the first batch which was distributed last year.
“We were not even considered or asked to submit a report of how we are impacted by the pandemic,” he said.
“To our surprise, we learned that other institutions that are similar to us had been asked to submit to LeFA how the Covid-19 had impacted them but we were not invited to do so,” he said.
He mentioned that it was still a surprise to them once again when they learned that they are still not included or considered even in the second batch of the fund.
LUCSA was meant to host the Confederations of University College Sports Association (CUCSA) Region 5 2020 which were then postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The games were set for Lesotho from 27 July to 2 August 2020.
With the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, and after extensive consultations with LUCSA as well as the Local Organising Committee, CUCSA executive committee resolved to postpone the games to CUCSA July-August 2021.
Lesotho was to host Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambigue, Namibia, South Africa, eSwatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe for the games.
Mantutle said they were hoping that through the fund they would be able to continue preparing the athletes.
“Our affairs are in order and had we been invited to submit the needed documents to show why we also need to be included in the fund, we would have, however, it seems LeFA has sidelined us and it is at a time when we could really do with all the financial assistance as we are gearing to host the CUCSA games,” he said.
LeFA Media Officer Mikia Kalati said the LUCSA was asked to like all other structures under the Football governing body, submit their request showing their needs but failed to do so.
“What I can confirm is that all the structures that LeFA works with were asked to submit a detailed report of how badly they were impacted and the ones that did not, like LUCSA, did not make it to the LeFA list of those that needed assistance,” Kalati said.
He said the issue is still in the LeFA office of the Secretary-General until a time when they have submitted all the correct documentation. He added that they (LUCSA) will still be assisted once they have done all that is required.
