CAF | |
---|---|
Short name | LFA |
Founded | 1932 |
Headquarters | Maseru |
FIFA affiliation | 1964 |
CAF affiliation | 1963 [1] |
COSAFA affiliation | 1997 |
President | Salemane Phafane [2] |
Website | https://lefa.co.ls/ |
The Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) is the governing body of association football in Lesotho, a landlocked country in Southern Africa. [3] It was formed in 1932 and it is based in the city of Maseru. [4] The board helps run the Lesotho national football team as well as domestic competitions such as the Lesotho Premier League, the Lesotho Independence Cup and the Vodacom Soccer Spectacular. [3]
Despite been formed in 1932, the Lesotho Football Association did not gain membership of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world governing body for association football, until 1964. [4] [3] In 1963, LEFA gained membership of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). [5] CAF is the controlling body for African association football and membership of it is required to compete in qualifying for Africa Cup of Nations or the event itself. [6] LEFA is also part of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) which acts as an association of football associations for Southern African countries. [7] Lesotho joined COSAFA in 1997 which is the year COSAFA was formed. [7] COSAFA organises the COSAFA Cup, a competition Lesotho has finished runners-up twice. [8]
LEFA runs the Lesotho national football team, whose first international match was a 2–1 win against Malawi in 1970. [9] The Lesotho national team has never qualified for an Africa Cup of Nations or a World Cup but they have competed in multiple COSAFA Cups with the first being the 1999 edition. [10] [11] The national team reached the final of the 2000 COSAFA Cup but lost 6–0 on aggregate to Zimbabwe. [12] LEFA also helps in the running of the Lesotho women's national football team. [3] [13] They played their first international match in 1998 and have since competed in the COSAFA Women's Championship on two occasions. [14] [15] In Lesotho, the Lesotho Premier League is the top domestic football league. [3] The winner of the league qualifies for the CAF Champions League. [16] As of October 2016 [update] the president of LEFA is Salemane Phafane. [3] In February 2022, Lesotho Football Association appointed former Angola and Botswana boss Veselin Jelusic as their new coach. [17]
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