Times Of Swaziland: COSAFA U20S WON’T DERAIL MTN LEAGUE - PLE

COSAFA U20S WON’T DERAIL MTN LEAGUE - PLE
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Ashmond Nzima on 18/08/2022 08:59:00


MBABANE – Proactive is the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) as they have a
plan to ensure the MTN Premier League 2022/23 games are not interrupted by
shortage of venues.
The PLE is aware that the country is playing host to the Hollywoodbets Council
of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Under-20 this year. The
development regional soccer showpiece was postponed last year to 2022. The
COSAFA tournament will run in the period October 6-16 and this is when the MTN
Premier League will also be underway. Kick-off is expected next month. It is an
open secret that some team representatives within the PLE Board of Governors
(BoGs) and coaches had spoken about this even with media personnel, especially
noting the Eswatini Football Association’s (EFA) annual general meeting (AGM)
was on August 21, this Sunday.
Anticipated
Teams had anticipated the season to resume this month as they had thought the
Eswatini Telecom Charity Cup would return after the last edition in 2019, before
COVID-19 stalled all the country’s major knockouts like EswatiniBank Cup and
Ingwenyama Cup. The thought from some teams was that there would be a break when
they had just started their games due to shortage of venues as the COSAFA
Under-20s would use KaLanga Technical Centre and Mavuso Sports Centre. “The
issue of stadia is a national major concern but as PLE we’re excited that
Bhunya and Simunye are coming back to the game so the two venues can help a lot
especially for first division matches,” responded PLE Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) Kenneth Makhanya when questioned about the potential league break due to
stadium shortage. He said they were anticipating an inspection of the Bhunya
Stadium along with the Simunye arena, otherwise they were getting ready to
kick-off the new football season.
Register
He said clubs were currently busy with fulfilling their CAF Club Licensing
requirements to be able to register. Meanwhile, elite rookies Seven Dreams have
confirmed usage of the Bhunya Stadium after getting its lease from the owners
for the upcoming season.