Madam,
May I, through your well-regarded publication, offer my reflections on the recently concluded 2025/26 football season?
It marked the official debut of the 16-club format across the top-flight and lower divisions after it was once forced in for a brief season during the COVID-19 era. What is different now is that this structure we are now tied to is for the foreseeable future.
While Nsingizini Hotspurs won a historic treble in the past season, Red Rhinos dominated the MulaSport National First Division (NFD) by claiming both the E55 000 first-round incentive and the E200 000 championship prize.
Firstly, let us question the cost of this expansion of the league from 14 to 16 teams. Have we not traded quality for quantity, diluting the ‘beautiful game’ until the spectacle is hollow?
When the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) championed this expansion, they promised higher standards that will also boost the senior men’s national team, Sihlangu Semnikati’s performance. Yet, one must ask: Has it happened?
The former Sihlangu gaffer Zdravko Logarusic, a man who never shied away from blunt truths, once argued that our talent pool is too shallow for such a bloated format and said we deserved a 10-team league.
He said that in the then 14-team league, he sometimes found only two or three players in some of the clubs of elite football calibre as he went around selecting his squad.
One wonders then what he would make of the current landscape. I observed in shock in this past weekend’s Times of Eswatini SUNDAY that since 2023, only eight clubs have consistently contributed players to the national team. Among those clubs, some only contributed benchwarmers.
What I am saying is that the evidence of local football regression is clear, even to the authorities themselves. Sihlangu have nose-dived to 165th in the FIFA rankings, occupying the worst ranking in a decade. This ranking is also a stark contrast to the 88th historic position once held during the 12-team league era of the 2016/17 season. Our recent elimination from the AFCON 2027 Qualifiers by Eritrea was not an anomaly; it was a symptom of a systemic illness of local football.
To the Eswatini Football Association (EFA), it is time to stop hiding behind the bureaucracy of Sigwaca House. Get hands-on and work in the spirit of ‘nkwe’, which is the mandate that His Majesty King Mswati III has given government.
Have you not become rubberstamps for the PLE’s short-sighted decisions? You attend their prestigious events with smiles, but are nowhere to be seen during their decision-making meetings, which have some heavyweights in the future of the kingdom’s football.
Allow me to say, the local game is suffering a slow, painful death, but the health staff have decided to ignore this patient, even when it has been dumped in the hospital.
Our economy cannot sustain a 16-club top-flight league. With an annual sponsorship of E7 million by MTN Eswatini this past season, PLE was found spreading the butter too thin, leaving clubs to survive on crumbs with its big pool size of member clubs. Imagine playing for the entire season to get E20 000 at the end in the top-flight, even worse in the lower division. Teams that finished lowest in the MulaSport NFD hit a E5 000 jackpot.
If we revert to a 12-team league, we could guarantee each club a starting grant of E150 000 at the beginning of the season, followed by a second E150 000 injection after the first round in the MTN Premier League. Too little money that would make a difference.
This capital would empower teams to recruit competitive talent rather than relying on ‘retirement home’ squads. Furthermore, this would allow for more lucrative individual prize monies, moving beyond the meagre incentives that have previously sparked such social media backlash.
I propose a radical change with immediate effect. Can the MTN Premier League be made 12 clubs please? This would be our sacred traditional big ‘three’; Mbabane Highlanders, Mbabane Swallows and the relegated Manzini Wanderers, the three security forces sides in Young Buffaloes, Royal Leopard and Green Mamba and consistent performers like Moneni Pirates, Nsingizini Hotspurs and Manzini Sea Birds.
For the remaining slots, I suggest regional mergers; for example, uniting the Lubombo representatives Tabankulu Celtics, Ubombo Sugar, Red Rhinos and Madlenya into one tough club. Small team mergers will also work best for the financial sustainability of clubs.
We must also stop treating the lower division as a dumping ground for senior players who have been rendered surplus in the top-flight. Truth be told, senior players who once offered not much value for their clubs in the Premier League played a pivotal role in the promotion of Red Rhinos and Pigg’s Peak Professional this past season.
As I rest my case, it is a simple parable for PLE. Like a parent who insists on a large family despite lacking the resources to feed them, our authorities are presiding over a structure that is starving. We must trim the fat, reward excellence and build a league that is elite in both name and deed. Anything less is merely rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship.
Sigwaca House in Mbabane. (File pic)
