The battle of Maseru

MASERU – Four high school teams will battle it out on Saturday at the Lesotho Correctional Service (LCS) Grounds to be crowned the inaugural Alliance Insurance kings of high school football.

The showdown will culminate in the first-ever Alliance Insurance High School Tournament and the four contending schools are Thetsane of Maseru, Mafeteng’s Bereng, Leribe’s Khethisa and St Rose High School of Berea.

The semi-final draw was made on Monday and Thetsane will face Bereng in a battle between Maseru and Mafeteng while Khethisa and St. Rose will lock horns in the second semi.

The tournament is being sponsored by Alliance Insurance who have put up M250 000 as part of a three-year partnership with the Lesotho Institute Schools Association (LISA) that was launched in May.

During that launch, Alliance announced the semi-finalist schools would receive mentoring from the four Vodacom Premier League clubs sponsored by the insurance company – Lioli, Matlama, LCS and Linare.

Each school will be mentored by a club from their district with the exception of Bereng who will be tutored by LCS because there is no Alliance sponsored team in Mafeteng.

Lioli, meanwhile, will look after St. Rose, Matlama will be with Thetsane while Linare will mentor Khethisa High School. Speaking on behalf of LISA, the association’s president, Caswell Moru, hailed the tournament’s impact on the youth.

“We thank Alliance for giving us what we have been crying for, let’s go and play,” Moru added.

“These big teams that Alliance is already sponsoring are going to get players (from the tournament). Alliance is a business; we must pass the message to our parents (and) teachers to look at Alliance because they are looking at us.”

In its first edition, the Alliance Insurance High School Tournament started with 16 teams battling it out in their respective districts and the knockouts continued until the number was whittled down to four teams.

The excitement has been ramped up even more for this weekend’s finale because the schools will be able to bring on substitutes from their Premier League mentor teams in the final 15 minutes of matches.

That, for example, Thetsane High School would be able to call on Likuena and Matlama star Jane Thabantšo because they are being mentored by the Vodacom premiership champions.

“We took the best of the best and you are going to see the best football ever,” Moru said.

“We will come with the parents so they can know that football can change the player’s life, we want to have them in the national team.”

Because most of the players are Under-17 players, the games will be one hour long but the substitution rules will be in line with FIFA laws with five substitutions allowed per team and three slots allocated for the changes.

Moru said because it is a one-day tournament they do not want to burn-out the players and want to give them adequate time to rest between the games so that they can play their best football.

“We will play for one hour and, in the case of a draw, we will go straight to the penalties because we don’t want to overload the players,” Moru said.

The first game will start at 9am with the second semi-final following afterwards. That will be followed by a third-place playoff before the day climaxes with the final.

Moru hailed Alliance for playing an “important role in the development of football” with LISA also in the process of preparing a football team for the Confederation of Southern African School Sports Associations (COSASSA) games in two months’ time and the AUSC Region 5 Youth Games in Malawi in December.

For their part, Alliance said the tournament is all about the kids. The competition, of course, is a major platform for the young players and it gives them a chance to showcase their talent and be scouted by Vodacom Premier League clubs.

Speaking on behalf of Alliance, ‘Makeabetsoe Mabaleha said the tournament is also meant to benefit the schools in the long run. By reaching this stage, all four semi-final teams now have new jerseys while the winner will collect a floating trophy as well as a full kit and balls.

There will also be individual prizes for the players that will stand out during the games.

“This is a schools tournament, we are not looking for individuals to benefit but all the school kids and the teams representing the school. The one who will win will get a floating trophy and if they win it three times in a row, they will keep it,” she said.

Mabaleha said their hope is to have the LCS grounds packed with supporters for this weekend’s finals and league scouts in attendance to watch the players.

“We wish for these schools to be supported by parents, teachers and the district teams,” she said.

“We are calling on Premier League teams to come and scout the talent that even us can see. I was proud to see five Premier League teams at the Lioli ground watching players (during the Berea finals) and also helping on who they think played well.”

Tlalane Phahla