MBABANE – Who shall be eligible for the draw on Sunday?
Will it be Red Rhinos or Manzini Wanderers? That is one of the questions lingering ahead of the launch and draw of the 8Bet Trade Fair 2026 on Sunday.
The tripartite partners of the season’s kick-off tournament, the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE), 8Bet and the Eswatini Investment Promotion Authority (EIPA), last week announced that the launch of the third edition of the tournament will be held on Sunday at Mavuso Sports Centre.
The launch is expected to be headlined by the draw, which is expected to set the tone for the FIFA World Cup final that will feature Spain and the winner of yesterday’s semi-final between England and Argentina.
However, the fresh challenge, which is not being the collision of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the 8Bet Trade Fair schedule, is who will be featured in the tournament. The light headache comes in the sense that the tournament largely features top-flight league clubs, with only the first edition having featured two teams from a lower division.
Last season, only MTN Premier League teams played after the expansion of the league from 14 to 16 teams. This season comes with complications as Manzini Wanderers had a rocky 2025/26 season which saw them relegated to the MulaSport National First Division (NFD).
However, Wanderers eventually secured the MulaSport NFD champions Red Rhinos’ top-flight status. As of now, this process has not been formally concluded as it has to be approved at the PLE annual general meeting (AGM). The team has allegedly written formally to PLE to notify them of the latest effort to keep them afloat. The draw will be done well ahead of the AGM that would formally finalise the swap of statuses, and it remains unknown who shall be put in the draw on Sunday.
However, by the time the tournament takes place, the AGM would have passed and the ‘Weslians’ would have likely formally been granted their wish to remain in the top flight.
Reached for comment, the maroon and white outfit’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Sandile ‘Ntofo’ Dlamini sounded amazed that only top-flight teams are featured in the tournament. Dlamini said for now, since their matter has not reached finality, they will be guided by the competition’s management committee (MC) on who plays the showpiece between them and Rhinos.
“We shall see on Sunday on what happens after the PLE reveals the 8Bet Trade Fair Cup rules and regulations and specifically, those teams who will be eligible to play this tournament,’’ he said.
Dlamini said it would be the office of the PLE that would guide them. He rehashed his statement that the team has also not been officially relegated as that is done during the AGM.
Meanwhile, PLE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pat Vilakati said everything shall be disclosed on Sunday during the day of the launch where the draw will be conducted.
However, they are expected to clarify another issue on how they are going to harmonise Nsingizini Hotspurs and Green Mamba’s CAF inter-club competitions schedule.
The former and the latter will be playing in the Champions League and Confederation Cup, respectively, during the weekend of September 4-6, while the 8Bet Trade Fair Cup is expected to run from August 28 to September 6, alongside the Eswatini International Trade Fair (EITF).
In both previous editions of the tournament, Wanderers have been prematurely knocked out. However, a source close to the Weslains revealed that the club is pushing hard to ensure the team does not miss any top-flight competition, which is why the swap of status process was kick-started well in advance.
