Seabata Mahao
The resumption of the 2023/24 Vodacom Premier League (VPL) season from the Christmas break has been delayed by a further two weeks owing to the national team’s involvement in friendly matches.
The league action was initially scheduled to resume on January 6, but will only restart on January 20 this year, to give the national team’s players a breather between the national duties and their club duties.
Likuena have played two training matches against Mozambique and South Africa this month, where they held their more illustrious neighbours to a goalless draw, and went down 2-0 against Mozambique.
The national team had started training camp early this month to prepare for the two matches, which were both played in South Africa.
The Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) has released a statement to premier league clubs regarding the changes in the league schedule.
“The rescheduling of the VPL fixtures comes from the schedule of the senior national team’s preparatory friendly matches against Mozambique and South Africa,” the PLMC said in the statement.
The prolonged break is also expected to help clubs to strengthen their squads during the current FIFA transfer window period running from January 1 to 31.
According to Lesotho Football Association (LeFA), clubs are only allowed to register five players during the mid-season transfer window.
“The system has been programmed to only allow the football clubs to register five players,” the statement stated.
Meanwhile, the current VPL season has gone 13 rounds of matches with Lioli FC leading the log on 33 points from 10 wins and three draws. They are currently the only unbeaten club in the top flight.
In second position is Matlama FC with 32 points while Bantu FC follows in third with 28 points. Naughty Boys and CCX FC prop the log table with three points each.
Ahead of the mid-season break, Matlama beat Manonyane FC 2-1, Linare beat the struggling LDF FC 2-1; Machokha beat CCX FC 3-1, while ACE Maseru and Naughty Boys settled for a 1-1 draw.
Liphakoe FC on the other hand defeated Lijabatho FC 2-0, LU FC beat Lifofane FC by the same scoreline; Bantu drew 0-0 with LCS FC, while Lioli drew 1-1 with LMPS FC.
So far a total of 218 goals have been scored in the premier league. The current VPL’s top goal scorer is Lioli’s Tumelo Khutlang with 12 goals, followed by Lemohang Lintŝa from LU with 10 goals tied with Bantu’s Litŝepe Marabe.
Bantu’s Hlompho Kalake and Michael Kanguite of Liphakoe have seven goals each, while LDF’s Leruo Lethunya and Linare’s Pheello Sephooana both have six goals each.
