Majantja back in premier league

Chris Theko

One of the country’s oldest football clubs, Majantja has secured the return to the premier league after buying the status of former premier league champions Kick4Life FC.

An official announcement was made in a joint press briefing by the two clubs on Wednesday this week at the Kick4life premises.

The Mohale’s Hoek-based side will realize it long-drawn dream of a return to top flight football since being relegated from the premier league at the end of the 2018/19 season and has been playing in the A-Division for the past three seasons.

Majantja were chosen amongst many other bidders which were vying to buy the status for a price of M180 000.

Addressing the media, the Chairman of Kick4Life, Baba Malephane said the decision of who to take over the status of the team was not only a money factor as they had to consider a number of other things.

“Let me clarify that Majantja were not the highest bidder. The selection process was not only based on the money aspect but we were looking at a few other things such as to see a team that is concerned about the growth and development of football in the country,” said Malephane. 

“Another thing we considered when we were in the process of interviewing all other candidates was that it should at least be a buyer from outside Maseru. When one looks at the football clubs in Maseru you see how congested it is especially on match day which poses a challenge since there are already not enough grounds”.

Malephane revealed that Majantja was the best option by virtue of being from Mohale’s Hoek where the Lesotho Football Association recently revamped the Mohale’s Hoek Difa Ground which could have been a white elephant if the district continued to not have a premier league team to use it. 

The news of Kick4Life selling their premier league status was announced in May and soon after Majantja was reported as favourites to take over.

He added that Kick4Life will be back in topflight in less than three years since they already have a development side playing in lower divisions.

For his part, Majantja Secretary General Katiso Mohlalisi thanked the management of Kick4Life for the move which will see them back into topflight soccer.

“This is a true honor to us as Majantja, we thank Kick4Life for choosing us amongst all those who had brought their bids,” Mohlalisi said.

Mohlalisi revealed that they will be leaving their A-Division status to All Aces which was playing in the B-Division. 

The bid for Majantja was funded by the Mohale’s Hoek business community with mogul Cloete Mdlokovana at the helm.   “I thank all the businessmen who have made this possible, especially Mr Mdlokovana. We need to take this as an opportunity to reform our team and we promise to take care of the status so that even Kick4Life will not regret this decision,” Mohlalisi said.