FC Likhopo bid for Kick4Life’s status
NTHAKO MAJORO
MASERU – The just-relegated premiership side FC Likhopo is on the verge of bidding for Kick4Life FC status. Kick4Life management has announced on Wednesday this week that they are selling the club’s premiership status. The Police Europa-based side has finished the just-ended 2020-21 season sitting on 9th place on the 16-team Vodacom Premier League log table. Kick4Life ex-officio executive member, Makoanyane Letsie, said there were several clubs who were already approaching them for the status.
“We are planning to sell the status of the Kick4Life men football team and as we talk we are in talks with several people who showed interest to buy the status,” said Letsie at a press briefing at Kick4Life premises on Wednesday.
Public Eye has been reliably informed that FC Likhopo is one of the clubs who are interested to buy the Kick4Life status. A source close to FC Likhopo management: “Yes, we are one of the teams looking to buy the Kick4Life status.” Letsie on the other hand said they were however not selling the name Kick4Life FC. “We are not selling the name. Kick4Life’s name will remain ours, and we are not going to buy any status from any lower division club or even the A Division status.
“We already have a team playing in the B Division and we are going to focus on that team and other junior teams we have here,” Letsie said. Kick4Life management, Letsie said had realised that it was using a lot of money for the senior men team yet most of youngsters at grassroots level need help. This is while Letsie said Kick4Life’s motto was to change children’s live through sports; “And what we want is to change their lives by making sure that they attend school.”
Letsie said most of those children were from poor families and so Kick4Life believed it would better for them to channel more of their resources to their education so they could have a better future when they stop playing football. Kick4Life Country Director, Motlatsi Nkhahle, also said: “As Kick4Life, our vision is to make sure that every child and young person in Lesotho achieve their true potential and we use football to make sure that we change their lives.”
Nkhahle further said: “As a result, the decision that we made about the Kick4Life men senior team was not reached overnight. It is one of the issues that we considered for the past years since we got opportunities to send several Kick4Life players overseas (through one of the United States scholarships), such as Lesia Thetsane, ’Mako Makoanyane, Senate Letsie, Boitumelo Rabale and others.”
However, Nkhahle said lately one of the challenges they had was that the scholarships were meant for amateur athletes and not for professionals. He said this was since the organizations who offered the sponsorships were considering Lesotho Premier League players as professionals. “This means Lesotho Premier League players lose the eligibility for athletes’ scholarships. Kick4Life FC started campaigning in the Lesotho top-flight league in 2013/14 season, and ever since then the team had never been relegated.
