Makoanyane XI Should Beat Morocco, Egypt

  The country's junior national team, Makoanyane XI, have received an incentive to beat Morocco and Egypt in the African Youth Championships in Benin in January. Qualifying for  the World Youth championships to be held in Netherlands later this year, could see them having a month long training camp in Germany.

Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) Chief Executive Officer, Kholoang "Mirror" Mokalanyane said arrangements are already in place with the German Football Association for the local team to fly to Germany for a month en route to Netherlands if it plays well and qualifies for the World Youth championships. 

Mokalanyane who, with  new LEFA president Advocate Salemane Phafane have just returned from Zurich, Switzerland where they were guests at the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Gala where the world best footballer was chosen, said if things go well, even the senior national team, Likuena, could also find itself holding a  training camp in Germany, if negotiations between the German and Lesotho associations go well.

Besides meeting several key figures at the event, they also held a fruitful meeting with the South African Football Association (SAFA) on how Lesotho could benefit from the 2010 World Cup. They were negotiating for at last one European country to hold its training camp in Lesotho in preparation for the World Cup.

They also held talks with the English Football Association (FA) for the latter to strengthen  cooperation on exchange programmes on coaching, refereeing as well as training of instructors to produce more coaches for the Youth and Women soccer development programme, he said .

The FIFA Gala, part of celebrating 100 years of the international soccer body's establishment, chose Brazilian football star Ronaldhino as FIFA's player of the year.

22 December 2004

  source: LENA