2016 Independence Cup launched

Matlama and LCS will face-off in the Independence Cup

The 2016 Independence Cup was launched on Tuesday afternoon at a lively ceremony at the Bambatha Tšita Sports Arena. The yearly showpiece which is sponsored by Metropolitan Lesotho and Standard Bank Lesotho will take centre stage this weekend at Setsoto Stadium.

The Independence Cup is Lesotho’s oldest cup competition and features the top four teams from the previous league season. This year the honour belongs to Lioli, Matlama, LCS and Sundawana.

To mark Lesotho’s 50th independence anniversary, Metropolitan and Standard Bank have announced they are sponsoring this year’s edition to a record tune of M600 000 with the winners set to claim a M150 000 jackpot, M50 000 more than last year’s champions.

The team that finishes second, meanwhile, will go home with M60 000 while third place will receive M40 000. The fourth placed team will collect M30 000.

Awards for individual brilliance will also be on offer.

There will be match of the match awards worth M1000 for each semi-final as well as the third-place playoff and final. The competition’s top goal-scorer will also end the weekend M2500 richer while the goalkeeper of the tournament will win M2000.

The main individual prize is for the player of the tournament who is set to go home with a M3000 cheque. There will also be awards for the referee and assistant referee of the tournament worth M2000 each.

2016 Indepedence Cup lift off...

The launch also saw the launch of the home and away jerseys the four teams will use during the tournament.

To conclude, tournament organisers promised a unique two-day bonanza of football. The action will begin on Saturday with the first semi-final between Lioli and Sundawana at 1pm. The second semi between Matlama and LCS will then follow at 3pm.

The two losing semi-finalists will then contest the third-place playoff in Sunday’s first game before the main event to decide the winner of M150 000 wraps up proceedings.

2016 Independence Cup Awards:

Man of the Match (all four matches): M1 000

Player of the Tournament: M3 000

Goalkeeper of the Tournament: M2 000

Top Goal-scorer: M2 500

Referee of the Tournament: M2 000

Assistant Referee of the Tournament: M2 000

Fixtures

Saturday

Lioli v Sundawana (13:00)

Matlama v LCS (15:00)

Sunday

Third-place playoff (13:00)

Final (15:00)