Econet Soccer Spectacular pre-season tournament launched

Lesotho's clubs have a new tournament to look forward to...

League sponsors Econet in association with the Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) and Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) on Tuesday added a new tournament to the football colander.

The tournament will be called the Econet Soccer Spectacular and will be a curtain raiser to the 2018/19 Econet Premier League season which is set to begin on September 15.

The new pre-season showpiece will be played on Saturday, August 25 at Setsoto Stadium.

It will be contested by four Econet Premier League clubs that will be voted into the competition by the public via SMS.

The four teams will be drawn into two semi-finals with a final played later in the day.

The idea of the tournament was shared and discussed with the heads and general managers of all league clubs who gave it their collective approval. Voting via SMS began on Tuesday and will end on midnight on Wednesday, August 22.

“The principal goal behind the tournament is to help local premier league clubs with start-up financing towards their league obligations as they begin every new season,” Econet said.

For this purpose, the all gate-takings from the tournament will be shared equally amongst the 14 clubs while the public will also have a chance to win plenty of exciting prizes during voting and on tournament day.

“This initiative comes as part of very important developments that have been happening in the Econet Premier League Sponsorship Project, which are intended to help the league and local football clubs to have a solid foundation for growth and development, as promised by the sponsor, Econet,” the organisers said.

Econet CEO Dennis Plaatjies said the company hopes to launch more products and services to help the “sustainable growth and development of football in the country”.

“We are a telecommunications company and we entered into the contract with our eyes open, ready to support and develop football in our country, this is why we engaged professionals along the way so that they can help us achieve our obligation” Plaatjies said.

“The spirit behind the tournament, and all other activities that Econet are undertaking in the EPL Sponsorship Project, is to create a new conscience and purpose amongst all local stakeholders in the game of football, one of working together in unity to achieve the goals and desires we all have for growth and development of local football,” Econet said.

“In unity and acting with responsibility, we shall win.”

The action will take place on August 25...

Tournament details:

Date: Saturday, August 25

Time: Gates open at 8:00. First match kicks off at 11:00

Venue: Setsoto Stadium, Maseru

Number of matches: 3 matches in one day: two knockout matches and one final match.=

Ticket price: M20.00 per person and M10 per vehicle.

Tickets availability: Available from Monday 20 August 2018 at all Econet shops across the country. Tickets will also be sold through EcoCash. When you buy your ticket through EcoCash, you get Free Babatone Dark Data.

Distribution of raised funds: 

1) 1/3 (one third) of all gate-takings shared amongst the four competing teams as prize money, with the following ratio:

·         40% for the tournament winner

·         30% for the runner-up

·         15% each for the remaining two teams

2) 2/3 (two thirds) of all gate-takings shared equally amongst all the fourteen EPL clubs

Voting: Voting is via SMS and begins Tuesday 7 August 2018, ends Midnight on Wednesday 22 August 2018.  

Teams codes are as following:

Bantu - T01

Galaxy - T02

Kick4Life - T03

LCS - T04

LDF - T05                              

Likhopo - T06

Linare - T07                           

Lioli - T08

Liphakoe - T09                                   

LMPS - T10

Majantja - T11

Matlama - T12

Sefotha-fotha- T13

Swallows - T14

SMS voting codes are as follows:

SMS  code	Number of votes	Results for voter
65250	1	You have successfully voted for “team name” 1 time.
65251	5	You have successfully voted for “team name” 5 times.
65252	10	You have successfully voted for “team name” 10 times.
65253	20	You have successfully voted for “team name” 20 times.
65254	50	You have successfully voted for “team name” 50 times.
65255	100	You have successfully voted for “team name” 100 times.