MBABANE – Misconduct continued to drain some of the 32 member clubs of the Premier League of Eswatini last season.
According to the PLE Activity Report for the 2025/26 season, fines formally amounted to E403 000, but were reduced to E350 000 after some amounts were suspended. Heading into the new season, the figures remain a cause for concern.
Some clubs, such as Amawele, Masundvwini Royal Swallows and Ubombo Sugar, accumulated fines that exceeded the prize money they received in both the MTN Premier League and the MulaSport National First Division. Clubs in both divisions regularly complained about limited resources and financial instability.
Topping the fines tally were Mbabane Highlanders with E60 000, largely arising from the crowd violence that led to the abandonment of their Ingwenyama Cup last-16 tie against Nsingizini Hotspurs.
After them came traditional capital city rivals Mbabane Swallows, who accumulated fines amounting to E45 000, a sum that matched the prize for finishing seventh.
Meanwhile, Ubombo ranked third with E35 000, followed by Manzini Sea Birds on E40 000 (with E20 000 suspended), and Amawele and Nsingizini Hotspurs on E30 000.
Worth noting is that Ubombo’s two offences involving the use of foreign substances alone accounted for E20 000, which equalled the prize money for finishing 12th in the MTN Premier League. Additionally, Amawele’s fines exceeded the E20 000 they earned for finishing 13th.
In the MulaSport National First Division, Masundvwini Royal Swallows suffered an even harsher outcome. Their total fines added up across cases, including a E20 000 fine for a match abandoned against Ludzeludze Killers, far outweighed their returns. By contrast, they received only E5 000 in prize money at the end of the season.
It is worth noting that the most common forms of misconduct across both the Premier League and the National First Division were crowd violence, fan assaults on match officials and the use of foreign substances.
Other offences included unauthorised stadium entries, technical bench non-compliance, player assaults on referees and absences from the media medical workshop.
However, fines of this nature are not unique to the country. In Lesotho, where the football economy operates on a similar scale, penalties typically fall in the low-to-mid thousands of Maloti. The reigning champions of the Lesotho Premier League were fined E10 000, with E5 000 suspended for the remainder of the season by the premier league management committee after supporters threw bottles onto the field during a match against Linare.
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