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‘BIG 3’ IN SEMIS, OTHERS VOTE FOR PLAYOFFS

31/08/2022 08:36:00 Chris Dlamini

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EZULWINI – Talk about levelling the ground, then the new MoMo Cup has certainly partly dealt with that for Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) teams in as far as their cries about security forces teams are concerned.

This is more so because the E2 million-sponsored MoMo Cup with the tagline ‘Isukile’ (It’s started), launched yesterday at the MTN Eswatini head office in Mahlalekhukhwini House, gave the country’s ‘Big Three’ teams; Mbabane Highlanders, Mbabane Swallows and Manzini Wanderers some level of recognition due to their crowd-pulling power. These three teams were seeded in the new tournament under the auspices of the PLE and this means they will only start playing in the semifinals on the main day of the tournament, set to play for just two days. It will be play-offs for the top four voting teams on October 8, to determine the one to join the ‘Big Three’ in the semis on October 30, 2022 when the champions to take home E600 000 will be crowned. The runner-up will receive E350 000 while the semifinal losers will each pocket E100 000. For teams to play in the playoffs, it will be E15 000 participation fee for each and the ticket to the main tournament for the playoffs winners.

“Fans will vote as of tomorrow (today) until September 30 at midnight to have their teams qualify for the tournament. While we seeded the ‘Big Three’, they also must vote as of tomorrow as they must reach 20 000 votes to show us they are the country’s biggest teams, or risk being kicked out of the semis even without kicking a ball as we will replace you with the better voting team no matter how small. “Like the security forces clubs, they also must vote up to 20 000 votes or more to play in the play-offs and probably join the ‘Big Three’ in the semis. What is good and a first of its kind is that the supporters get to choose their opponents in the main semifinals like Highlanders versus playoff winner or Highlanders versus Wanderers and so on, through the voting that will also help us formulate data to inform us how much each team is followed,” PLE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenneth Makhanya said. He also explained that each vote would be E2 and encouraged fans and supporters to take the time and vote through MoMo, the platform they will use to purchase almost everything to do with the MoMo Cup, even their food and beverages at the stadium during the two days, October 8 and 30, this year.

Collections

Furthermore, all gate collections during the playoffs and main tournament will be shared by participating clubs. Also, first division teams that hit 1 000 and more votes will get a prize while in the elite league the little fancied teams get the prize, if they contribute 2 000 or more votes. Meanwhile, the country’s elite football has three security forces teams in Royal Leopard (Police) Green Mamba (Correctional Services) and Young Buffaloes (Army). FinTech CEO Sam Shongwe, who announced the new partnership with PLE, said each year would have its package announced dependent on discussions with the football organisation. He also gave a bit of background about FinTech who run the Mobile Money product called MoMo among others, saying they had recently transitioned, becoming an independent organisation standing proudly next ‘to our parent company MTN’, as MTN FinTech Services.

He attributed this change as an organics result of the exponential growth of Mobile Money in Eswatini and the rest of Africa. He said they were extremely proud of the strides they had made as an organisation with MTN FinTech increasingly becoming the currency of choice in different facets of life including the beautiful game of football and fans. “Today we are here to further extend that convenience, specifically for the football fraternity in the country. MTN enjoys a long and fruitful partnership with PLE, and we are pleased to share that MTN FinTech is further partnering with the Premier League of Eswatini, bringing you MTN Fintech products to the football supporters in our land.

Package

“This year, MTN FinTech is investing a total of E2 million towards the MoMo Cup partnership which we hope will go beyond the three years. We shall announce each year’s package in the relevant year based on our discussions with PLE,” Shongwe said. “MTN FinTech utsi (says) isukile i-MoMo Cup . I thank you all,” he added. He also encouraged clubs to utilise this opportunity and open the MoMo accounts to allow fans to actively support them towards financial sustainability while also playing bills, salaries and merchandise sales. It is expected fans will also buy their tickets to the games using this platform while all payments regarding the tournament, whether to clubs or fans, will be through the MoMo platform.