Mojakhomo leaves Kick4Life den

Gets the chop in a string of layoffs at the Academy

NTHAKO MAJORO

MASERU – Kick4Life Academy development coach, Katiso Mojakhomo, is on the way out of the football institution and says he leaves without any hard feelings. According to information trickling from the Academy based at the Police Europa in Maseru the coach’s departure is part of a restructuring exercise borne by the COVID-19 lockdown economic crunch that has throttled football clubs in the country’s elite league – and the coach holds no grudges against management.

Mojakhomo is one of Kick4Life staffers who have been affected by the club’s restructuring due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown which has resulted in the suspension of the Econet Premier League (EPL) from March this year. Kick4Life Academy announced recently that they were no longer able to maintain their staff, players and coaches’ salaries, leading to the layoff of several staffers and players. Academy Director of Football, Chris Bullock, last week similarly announced he will leave the institution when his contract expires at the end of this month. Mojakhomo is also expected to part ways with the institution at the end of the month.

Bullock, however, will not be leaving Lesotho. The United Kingdom (UK) football manager told Public Eye in a recent interview he was weighing his options and is in discussions looking into potential opportunities. Mojakhomo, who joined the Academy as Kick4Life FC head coach, was stripped of the responsibility earlier in the season after a string of poor results. The club’s foreign players Innocent Ncala Matlapeng, Teboho Ramothobi and Nkopane Tabi have also been slapped with letters giving them clearance to leave the outfit.

“I have received a letter informing me of the restructuring exercise two weeks ago,” Mojakhomo said in an interview with Public Eye on Wednesday, “it said the restructuring was a result of the current COVID-19 impact on the country’s economy and sporting activities, and I have also heard that apart from me there are players who have also been given their clearances.”   Mojakhomo views the restructuring exercise at the Kick4Life as a positive move which shows that “management cares about the welfare of its staff; hence they took the decision to off-load people in order not to disappoint them.”

“What I have realized is that they care about people’s welfare, and that says a lot. You can see that the reason why they took a decision to effect the restructuring is because they don’t want to disappoint people at the end of the day,” he said. Mojakhomo further said: “…and because of that I don’t think I would have a problem to volunteer my service to a club like Kick4Life.” The former LCS FC, Lioli FC and Bantu FC coach said he wished other local clubs could emulate the management systems that the Academy and its clubs have in place. He said he has coached several big clubs in the country, but singled out Kick4Life management as the best.

Mojakhomo’s stint at Kick4Life started well but took a dive towards the end of last year, with the side losing four matches in a row under his guidance – with some humiliating defeats. This led to assistant coach, Paul Westren, taking over the reins in the senior team. Public Eye has, however, also heard from reliable sources that Westren is also among other Kick4Life coaches who have also been affected by the restructuring. Kick4Life are on position nine in the 14-team Econet Premier League log table having collected 23 points from 19 matches.