Majantja also eyes Kick4Life status    

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NTHAKO MAJORO

MASERU – The Mohale’s Hoek football giants, Majantja FC, are one of the clubs bidding for the Kick4Life premier league status. Majantja were relegated from the country’s elite league to the A-Division at the end of the 2018/19 season after finishing bottom of the then 14-team log table. Since then, Majantja have found it tough to bounce back and win promotion to the top-flight league. They finished the just-ended 2020/21 season lying on fifth position on the 10-team South Stream Lesotho Postbank A-Division log table.

Majantja’s Communications and Marketing Manager, Lehlohonolo Moeketse, told Public Eye this week that his club was among the teams bidding for the Kick4Life premiership status. This after Kick4Life announced last month that they were selling their men’s team’s premier league status. “Just like other teams, we have also put in a bid for the Kick4Life premiership status and we are waiting for a final response,” said Moeketsi on Monday this week.

Kick4Life Media Officer, Reitumetse Tlopo, told this paper last Monday that negotiations between his club’s management and several potential buyers were continuing and that they would soon be announcing the successful buyers. Public Eye has also been reliably informed that FC Likhopo was one the clubs interested in buying the Kick4Life status, even though Vice President, Qamako Mahao, would not be drawn into confirming or denying his club’s interest.

Moeketse said it’s time for Majantja to return to the top-flight league, saying their team does not belong to any division lower than the premier league. “There are many reasons why we have to return to the (Lesotho) premier league, and one of them is that the league is boring without Majantja since we are one of the biggest clubs in the country who command a big following,” said Moeketse.

Moeketse further said: “I think we are among the top four teams who command a big following in the country and, because of that, our fans are bored and discouraged by the fact that we are not playing in the premier league.”

Moeketse said apart from that, Mohale’s Hoek was one of very few districts with a good football arena built by the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) through the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA)’s Goal Project, therefore, he said if they do not capitalise on that, other teams would enjoy the benefits of using their pitch for hosting some of their games while Majantja would benefit nothing if the team would remain in the A-Division. “This ground (the arena) will be used by Bantu, Matlama and other teams if we remain in the A-Division and that will not be a good thing for the Mohale’s Hoek people in general to watch other teams playing at our ground while we cannot.”

Moeketse further said Mohale’s Hoek’s economy had since declined since Majantja were relegated from the top-flight league. He said that was because the team was longer playing in the elite league where it used to host big matches that used to attract big crowds. “So we have realised that it is not good for the Mohale’s Hoek business people for the economy had declined since Majantja is no longer playing the premier league.

“This is because when we hosted big clubs like Lioli and others, Mohale’s Hoek business people were benefiting a lot from fans of such teams because they used to buy from them, while on the other hand we used to make enough money from gate-takings.” Moeketse said with the money they used to make from gate-takings, Majantja management met the team’s expenses unlike now when the Mohales’ Hoek giants are playing in the A-Division. Majantja was founded in 1932 and have won the premier league title twice – in the 1970/71 and 1994/95 seasons.

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