MATLAMA clinched a record 11th league title without touching the ball over the weekend after second placed Bantu suffered a 4-1 walloping at the hands of Linare in a Vodacom Premier League encounter in Maputsoe on Sunday.
sports
April 27, 2022
STAFF REPORTER
3 min read
Matlama clinch record league title with four games to spare
Matlama crowned Independence Cup champions a few years ago
Story highlights
Tse Putsoa win 11th league title
Matlama to claim purse worth half a million maloti
They scooped the championship with four games to spare and in the process re-wrote the history books of football in the country with a record 11 league titles.
Tse Putsoa becomes the first team in Lesotho to win the league title since telecommunications giants, Vodacom returned as the sponsors of the Premier League in a deal worth M8.5 million over three seasons.
The first year of the sponsorship will see Vodacom forking out M2.5 million to sponsor the 16-team Premier League while in the second year it will increase to M2.8 million and M3.2 million in the third year and final year of the sponsorship.
The Sea-Point-based outfit stands in position one with its 11 league titles while LDF are in second place with eight.
Matlama reclaim the biggest prize in domestic football from Bantu and will pocket half a million maloti for their troubles.
A Matšo Matebele on the other hand will battle the likes of LDF, LCS and Lioli in the race to finish the campaign among the top four teams in the league.
At the bottom of the table, clubs such as FC Likhopo, who were Premier League champions on two occasions, must fight for survival with the likes of Swallows.
Speaking about their special but long season that was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and took almost two years to complete, veteran midfielder Lisema Lebokollane, said it was their mission to win the league title at the end of the season.
“Our goal from the start was to win the league title and we made sure that everyone at the club knew this,” Lebokollane said.
“We worked hard for it though it was a long and challenging season. We had to stop for months at some stage because of the disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns.
“It was really a bizarre season that took almost two years to complete, but it was also important that we as players do not get distracted and lose focus.”
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The lanky midfielder, who is among the longest serving players at Tse Putsoa along with the likes of Phafa Tšosane and Jane Thabantšo, stated that they wanted their names to be written in the history books of the club.
“Matlama are a team that is driven by history and breaking records and the only way we could have our names in the history books was by winning this championship to set a new record,” the midfielder noted.
“We wanted to leave a legacy so that we could be remembered for years to come and I have no doubt that we have done exactly that by winning the record title,” he said.
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