{"id":3428,"date":"2022-05-18T11:15:28","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T09:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428"},"modified":"2022-05-18T11:15:28","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T09:15:28","slug":"from-the-secretary-generals-desk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428","title":{"rendered":"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Appointment of Coach Veselin Jelusic \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the resignation of the then Lesotho National Teams Head Coach, Mr. Thabo Senong in June 2021, the Lesotho Football Association\u2019s leadership resolved to engage a replacement for Mr. Senong just before the start of the 2023 CAF AFCON. Once the position was advertised the Association was inundated with a lot of candidate applicants.\u00a0 The process went on and in the end Mr. Veselin Jelusic was engaged.\u00a0 Why Mr. Jelusic?\u00a0 Mr. Jelusic comes with an impressive football persona and pedigree.\u00a0 From his days at the Botswana Football Association where he managed to qualify the Botswana National Team to an AFCON and what he managed to achieve at Bloemfontein Celtic put him as a favourite to the position.\u00a0 The Leadership of LeFA wanted someone who understood the nature and culture of the local players.<\/p>\n

Yes, indeed we can say that Likuena has had an impressive start under the new mentor.\u00a0 One will understand that the preliminary qualifier match against the Seychelles was a tricky encounter due to many reasons.\u00a0 Firstly, had Likuena lost the match, it would have been a football politics disaster as you will have seen the reaction of most of the countries that lost out in qualification for either the World Cup or the AFCON group qualifiers.\u00a0 The fans and media have accused leadership with all sorts of wrongdoings due to the failure to advance to the World Cup or the group stages of the AFCON.\u00a0 Secondly, for the Coach and the Association, losing to Seychelles would mean that the appointment of the new Coach would have been viewed as the biggest football flop of our days.\u00a0 I think Mr. Jelusic has ushered in a new era, one where no player is guaranteed a position in the team.\u00a0 Everyone must fight for their place.<\/p>\n

Playing at Dobsonville Stadium in South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having to play our home matches in South Africa has been unavoidable. When CAF embarked on setting up a criterion for those facilities where the A International matches would be played some of us knew that the facilities in the Kingdom of Lesotho would not make it.\u00a0 We saw several Clubs in the CAF Interclub competitions and some national teams having had to play their official matches on foreign soil, it became clear that Likuena would, fall in the same category. Once it was clear that Likuena would play in South Africa, it was not difficult for the LeFA leadership to choose the Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto.\u00a0 You will remember that Lesotho has played against South Africa at the u20 level and won, it again played against Bafana Bafana in the CHAN competition and knocked out Bafana Bafana convincingly at the Dobsonville Stadium.\u00a0 It was these results that made the decision to play at the Dobsonville Stadium an easy one, we had the belief that we would be successful at the same facility.<\/p>\n

Bumper year of international matches<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year there will be several international matches to be played at both the National Teams level and the Clubs.\u00a0 In a months\u2019 time, Likuena will begin its CAF Qualifiers and in less than a month after the AFCON Qualifiers Likuena will compete in the COSAFA Cup.\u00a0 In September the next wave of AFCON Qualifiers will be played.\u00a0 This surely calls for depth in the squad.\u00a0 Then in July Matlama which set to be crowned as the champions of Lesotho will play its CAF Champions League matches.\u00a0 It is highly probable that the Women teams will also take part in the COSAFA Women\u2019s Cup as well as the AUSC Games later in the year.\u00a0 So yes, 2022 looks to be a very busy year.<\/p>\n

Long football Season due to Covid-19 disruptions <\/strong><\/p>\n

When you talk about the current season, ooh yes this has been the longest season ever, I mean two calendar years to complete one season is unheard of. I guess Lesotho should be holding the record of having the longest season.\u00a0 However, one needs to understand that there was not much that we could have done.\u00a0 The Covid-19 pandemic has forced many industries to do things differently and football was not exempted from the melee.\u00a0 This phenomenon has led to many teams having to endure massive financial strain.\u00a0 The sooner the season ends the better so that teams can focus on rebuilding for the new season.<\/p>\n

Support for Women Football <\/strong><\/p>\n

As part of the Lesotho Football Association\u2019s mandate of developing football in the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Lesotho Football Association has resolved to invest heavily on women football.\u00a0 For many years women football had been somehow denied the kind of attention that it deserved.\u00a0 Since the election of the new Committee and President, attention has been directed to investing significantly on women football.<\/p>\n

Just the other day we bought equipment for eighty-one women football clubs to help them to be able to honour their league obligations.\u00a0 This is the start of good things to come for women football in the Kingdom of Lesotho.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Appointment of Coach Veselin Jelusic \u00a0 Following the resignation of the then Lesotho National Teams Head Coach, Mr. Thabo Senong in June 2021, the Lesotho Football Association\u2019s leadership resolved to engage a replacement for Mr. Senong just before the start of the 2023 CAF AFCON. Once the position was advertised the Association was inundated with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0 - Lesotho Football Association<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0 - Lesotho Football Association\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Appointment of Coach Veselin Jelusic \u00a0 Following the resignation of the then Lesotho National Teams Head Coach, Mr. Thabo Senong in June 2021, the Lesotho Football Association\u2019s leadership resolved to engage a replacement for Mr. Senong just before the start of the 2023 CAF AFCON. Once the position was advertised the Association was inundated with...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho Football Association\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Lesotho-Football-Association-2427616000623067\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-18T09:15:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lesotho Football Association\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@FootballLesotho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@FootballLesotho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lesotho Football Association\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lesotho Football Association\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4c80bff0bd42d1e7fd74dee80a3e1080\"},\"headline\":\"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-18T09:15:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428\"},\"wordCount\":840,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428\",\"name\":\"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0 - Lesotho Football Association\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-18T09:15:28+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?p=3428#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho Football Association\",\"description\":\"Official\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Lesotho Football Association\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/lefa-logo-01-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/lefa-logo-01-2.png\",\"width\":162,\"height\":140,\"caption\":\"Lesotho Football Association\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/Lesotho-Football-Association-2427616000623067\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/FootballLesotho\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4c80bff0bd42d1e7fd74dee80a3e1080\",\"name\":\"Lesotho Football Association\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6d58b7d13f20305d0bd3b4f5c0b758fc2f7e4ad3da1f2646be504424d9a5ada6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6d58b7d13f20305d0bd3b4f5c0b758fc2f7e4ad3da1f2646be504424d9a5ada6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/6d58b7d13f20305d0bd3b4f5c0b758fc2f7e4ad3da1f2646be504424d9a5ada6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lesotho Football Association\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lefa.co.ls\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0 - Lesotho Football Association","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0 - Lesotho Football Association","og_description":"Appointment of Coach Veselin Jelusic \u00a0 Following the resignation of the then Lesotho National Teams Head Coach, Mr. Thabo Senong in June 2021, the Lesotho Football Association\u2019s leadership resolved to engage a replacement for Mr. Senong just before the start of the 2023 CAF AFCON. Once the position was advertised the Association was inundated with...","og_url":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428","og_site_name":"Lesotho Football Association","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Lesotho-Football-Association-2427616000623067\/","article_published_time":"2022-05-18T09:15:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lesotho Football Association","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@FootballLesotho","twitter_site":"@FootballLesotho","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lesotho Football Association","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428"},"author":{"name":"Lesotho Football Association","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#\/schema\/person\/4c80bff0bd42d1e7fd74dee80a3e1080"},"headline":"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0","datePublished":"2022-05-18T09:15:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428"},"wordCount":840,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428","url":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428","name":"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0 - Lesotho Football Association","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2022-05-18T09:15:28+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/DSC_0152-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?p=3428#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From the Secretary General\u2019s Desk\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/","name":"Lesotho Football Association","description":"Official","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#organization","name":"Lesotho Football Association","url":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/lefa-logo-01-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/lefa-logo-01-2.png","width":162,"height":140,"caption":"Lesotho Football Association"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Lesotho-Football-Association-2427616000623067\/","https:\/\/x.com\/FootballLesotho"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/#\/schema\/person\/4c80bff0bd42d1e7fd74dee80a3e1080","name":"Lesotho Football Association","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6d58b7d13f20305d0bd3b4f5c0b758fc2f7e4ad3da1f2646be504424d9a5ada6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6d58b7d13f20305d0bd3b4f5c0b758fc2f7e4ad3da1f2646be504424d9a5ada6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6d58b7d13f20305d0bd3b4f5c0b758fc2f7e4ad3da1f2646be504424d9a5ada6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lesotho Football Association"},"url":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefa.co.ls\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}