CIVILIANS CLUBS TAKE LEAD OF PLAY IN TOP 4 FINALS

There was a sigh of relief when 'Civilian teams' avoided 'Disciplined forces clubs' in the Castle Top 4 finals draw conducted at the Lesotho Brewing Company (LBC) under the auspices of Maluti Mountain Brewery (MMB).
The draw was conducted at the company premises last week.

League champions, Matlama will play Lioli at the first match of a doubleheader scheduled on August 08 to10 at the Setsoto stadium with last season's champions Lesotho Prisons Service (LPS) taking on rivals Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) in the second clash of the day. The second day will see LPS up against Matlama in the first game, while LDF will come face to face with their hoodoo opponents Lioli in the second encounter.

When the competition heats as people would be expecting with keen interest as to who will snatch the first prize on the last day, Matlama will have to produce a sterling performance in an attempt to guard against their rivals LDF, that created animosity after battling on the field of play as well as outside for league championships.

There will be much at stake to play for, as the first prize money is M13,600 and second placed team will walk away with M1, 200, while the third as well as fourth positioned teams will pocket M8 800 and M6 600 respectively. As incentives to players to perform at their level best, there will also be individual prizes of top goal scorer, player of the tournament, best goalkeeper and the best-disciplined team. Each of them will get a M1000.

Meanwhile, two teams promoted from the first division are still to be known to replace Bantu United and Maradona Juniors which have since been demoted to the lower ranks. It was announced that M14 000 would be set aside for administration costs of the tournament and advertisement purposes. LDF are the defending Castle Top 4 champions after winning it last year.

4 August 2003