Khomari Challenges Makakole For LEFA Presidency

In what promises to be the liveliest contest yet in Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) executive committee elections on May 29, legendary all rounder Ts'eliso "Frisco'" Khomari is challenging incumbent president Thabo "Pres" Makakole for the chair the latter has occupied since 1998.

Khomari announced his intention to challenge the long serving Makakole at a press conference he called on May 19, making clear his dissatisfaction with the fact that Makakole is not only LEFA president by also president of the the national sports governing body, the newly established Sports and Recreation Commission.

"It is wrong and unacceptable, for the President of the Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission to again and simultaneously be the President of the Lesotho Football Association which for all intents and purposes, is accountable to him.

"In management terms, this constitutes what is referred to as a 'conflict of interests' and, violates all principles of good governance in terms of transparency and accountability," Khomari said.

To illustrate how untenable the current president's occupation is, Frisco gave as an example the fact that in this position Makakole allocates money to himself, at the beginning of the year, as President of LEFA and, at the end of the very same year financial year, he accounts to himself this time as president of the Commission.

"In simple football language, he is both referee and player at the same time," the one time LEFA vice president said.

Frisco Khomari was also critical of the president, pointing out that Makakole did not have the interests of football at heart as was shown by the fact at the time he was busy campaigning  for a Confederation of African Football (CAF) position, there had been problems at home, with the Premier League not running and Lesotho had lost to Botswana in the World Cup qualifying games.

League games were supposed to have started earlier in August, and when the national team played against Botswana later in November there had been no proper preparations for such an important event. He was still baffled what criterion was used to select the players who featured in the game against Botswana on that fateful day, he said.

"As a result of this untenable negligence and lack of commitment to the business and affairs of the Association, by the president and his executive committee, Lesotho is out of FIFA competitions for the next three years." 

However, he said the president has been canvassing in the constituencies throughout the country convincing them to again vote for him, even though he is without a 'development-oriented programme that would bring a positive change in the performance and standard of the sport,'  in which one would expect to find at least an indication of what he intends to do, and how he intends to bring change and improvement in football.

"It is utterly unacceptable to say the least, that a president with almost ten years' experience does not have a plan," Khomari said.

Makakole was not available for comment as he was said to be out of the country attending a FIFA conference.

24 May 2004