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DOMINIC SUBMITS TRAINING PROGRAMME

26/02/2021 01:33:00 BY SABELO NDZINISA

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MBABANE – It’s a wait and see situation.

The Eswatini Football Association (EFA) is keeping fingers crossed that the senior national soccer team will be granted special permission to start preparations for their upcoming 2022 AFCON Qualifiers.

The local squad must start preparations for the qualifying matches against Guinea-Bissau, which will be a home match before they travel to Senegal for their final match.

Information gathered yesterday was to the effect that the country’s football authorities have made a special request to government for Sihlangu to be allowed to start training before March 5, when Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku is expected to announce if the partial lockdown is lifted or extended.

approval

Apparently, Sihlangu technical bench, headed by Dominic Kunene, has already submitted the squad’s training programme to the country’s football mother body for approval in readiness for the start of the preparations.

EFA’s Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe said they were currently awaiting direction from government on the Sihlangu situation.

“CAF confirmed dates for the Sihlangu qualifying matches a while back, so we are aware of the scheduled dates and time for those games. Government is handling case by case when it comes to football like it happened with Young Buffaloes when they were granted the special permission to start preparations for their CAF games. Such issues are still administrative at this stage and there are correspondences exchanged between the parties involved,” Radebe said.

He added that the suspension of football does not mean the association is doing nothing in as far as off-the-field preparations for the Sihlangu matches are concerned.

“Preparations for such matches are not just confined to the field of play, but there is also a lot happening off the field as well. There is planning involved as well as other logistics that do not require on-field training,” the EFA spokesperson said.

It is widely expected that Masuku will announce lifting of football suspension in the country on March 5, paving way for not just Sihlangu preparations but the return of football as well.