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PLE TO FINISH LEAGUE IN 3 MONTHS

16/03/2021 08:02:00 BY NTOKOZO MAGONGO

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MBABANE – The Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) is racing against time to finish the 2020/21 season in record three months – with a 16-team league, to boot.

The MTN Premier League has only played two out of the 30 designated games. Teams were last in action on December 12/ 13 and 19 and 20, 2020 and since then, there had been no training or play allowed. Government is expected to address the nation on the latest review of the two weeks partial lockdown on Thursday. The Eswatini Football Association (EFA) and the PLE had planned that the season would be concluded by end of May and the two major knockouts tournaments being the Ingwenyama Cup and the EswatiniBank Cup played between June and July. A source close to the matter said with the regional football far from being allowed to resume, the knockout tournaments are likely to be cancelled for this season to next season. The source said EFA and PLE want the 2021/ 22 season to start on the actual dates, August.

Both the knockout tournament features teams from the regional associations being Hhohho, Manzini, Lubombo and Shiselweni. Only the Ingwenyama Cup was played to completion last season with the EswatiniBank Cup cancelled in the quarter-finals.
“They have no plan to cancel the MTN Premier League like it happened last season. It is highly possible that they cancel the knockout tournaments in the 2020/ 21 season, but conclude the league as it has already started,” he said. The source added that there were plans to also cancel the regional football for the season 2020/ 21 and start again timely in August.

trophy

Last season, Young Buffaloes were handed the trophy with eight games remaining after the COVID-19 forced the suspension of sports in the country from March to September when some of the sporting codes were allowed to resume action. PLE Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati said for now they were awaiting for a directive from the EFA as they were the one consulting with the government through the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs. “There are no changes as far as I’m concerned we are waiting for a response from EFA and we will take it from there,” he said. Teams have called for the vaccination of players to continue with the game. EFA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Frederick Mngomezulu said for now, all was dependent upon government and he will be in a good position to comment once he returned home. Mngomezulu was away in Rabat, Morocco, where he had attended the 43rd Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Congress with President Adam ‘Bomber’ Mthethwa and Vice-President Peter ‘Samora’ Simelane.