Battle for People’s Cup explodes

MASERU – Four Vodacom Premier League heavyweights will begin the battle for a whopping M200 000 jackpot in the People’s Cup this weekend at the Bocheletsane Combined School ground in Mantšonyane.

The inaugural showpiece will begin with semi-finals and the final is scheduled to be played at Setsoto Stadium on April 30.

Lesotho Defence Force (LDF), Bantu, Linare and Lioli are the four contenders that topped a month-long SMS voting competition which saw the teams raise over M600 000 in the voting process.

The four finalists were announced on Monday at Bambatha Tšita Sports Arena where the semi-final draw was also conducted.

Bantu will face Linare in one semi-final while LDF will go up against Lioli in the other.

Bantu topped the voting charts with 91 683 votes, followed by LDF with 82 423. Lioli finished third with 75 151 votes while Linare occupied the last spot with 74 781 votes. Swallows finished in fifth place and missed out on the competition by just 50 votes.

Although the voting has seen Swallows cry foul about the process, many more people were surprised to see Matlama miss out and ‘Tse Putsoa’ are the only big district team that will be watching from the side-lines as Lesotho’s richest cup competition gets underway.

The match between Bantu and Linare is a repeat of a recent league fixture which Bantu won 2-0 and Linare now have an opportunity to avenge the loss.

It is a cup knockout game which means anything can happen and both coaches will be anticipating a difficult game. Both teams will know that league form does not matter in a knockout game.

Bantu are the favourites to win the league and the People’s Cup is an opportunity for them to complete a double for the season which potentially would make their winnings for the season a cool M750 000.

The People’s Cup is backed by Econet Telecom Lesotho (ETL) and Matekane Group Companies (MGC) to the tune of M600 000 for the next three years. Each company forked out M300 000.

The winner will walk away with M200 000 and the runners up will get M100 000. The third and fourth placed teams will each receive M60 000 and M40 000 respectively.

Individual awards:
Player of the Tournament (M3 500)
Top Scorer (M3 000)
Goalkeeper of the Tournament (M2 500)
Referee of the Tournament (M1 500)
Assistant Referee (M1 000)
Fair Play award (M1 500)

Final standings
Bantu (91 683)
LDF (82 423)
Lioli (75 151)
Linare (74 781)
Swallows (74 731)
Lijabatho (73 493)
Lifofane (71 030)
Matlama (67 481)
Manonyane (32 640)
LCS (6 073)
Liphakoe (1 745)
Naughty Boys (802)
CCX (203)
LMPS (165)
Machokha (119)
Galaxy (43)

Tlalane Phahla