Lesotho teenage referee makes history
Mlungisi Sixeshe became the youngest referee to officiate a final of an elite league in Lesotho at 18-years-old handling the Nedbank Championship final between Ace Maseru and eventually winners, Limkokwing University.
According to the LeFA Referees Coordinator Mr. Mohau Sents’o, Sixishe is part of the Association’s Young Talent Programme aimed at grooming match offcials between the age of 15 to 25.
The Thetsane born teenage referee recently completed his high school studies at Thetsane High School, where he was the Head Boy and is now preparing for life at higher education institutions.
Thabelo Ntaote, who was the second assistant in Sunday’s match as Limkokwing FC clinched the Nedbank Championship with a 2-0 win over Ace Maseru, is the oldest at 25 between the two assistant referees and the central referee that officiated the Sunday final at BambathaTs’ita Sports Arena.
“If you noticed these are referees that were assigned to officiate the recent B Division regional Knockouts from when they started in Mokhotlong and the reason for that was that as we conclude the 2022/2023 season is to have a good succession plan in case some of the veteran referees decides to retire at the end of the campaign,” Sents’o stated.
“I’m not saying we have referees that are retiring, but we should be ready in case it happens. We don’t want to be caught with our pants down and it was important that we have referees that are ready to fill the void should the old guard feel its time to call it a day.
“We had to prepare them by throwing them into the deep end so that they have the confidence to step in should they be needed to take over in the new season.
“These group of young referees have been tested throught the 2022/2023 officiating in the A Division. Usually, for these Cup competitions, we always use our elite referees such as Lebalang Mokete, Osias Kote and others, but this time around, I and my colleagues in the refereeing department decided to go for young referees and give them the confidence to handle big games as well as finals.”
The Lesotho Football Association referees department has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years with Souru Phatṧoane the biggest success story having in the last three years officiated in all of CAF elite competition finals as well as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“We at some stage this past season had challenges, where our senior referees were unavailable in big numbers for premier league matches and had to go for a young brigade,” Sents’o explained.
“It’s then that we started to use many of these young referees in premier leagues matches mostly as fourth officials to prepare for the big stage so that we never find ourselves in a crisis in the future.
“What I can tell you is that we are covered in that department and we have young referees that are ready to step up anytime. CAF also wants young referees and has requested each of its Member Association to submit at least two referee who are aged between 18-22.
“We have another one who officiated the final of Nedbank 8, who is 21-year-old. We are in good space and our young referees are ready to step up whenever they are needed,” he said.
