R14,000 for Lumveleni champions

Attractive cash prizes are at stake in the Lumveleni Easter Soccer Tournament, which was officially launched during a ceremony held at the Lumveleni Restaurant in Ngudza last Saturday morning. Sixteen teams from Thohoyandou and the surrounding areas will participate in the tournament.

When delivering the keynote address, Mr. Dan Ndou, on behalf of the sponsors, expressed their delight in being associated with the tournament. He announced that the tournament would be sponsored to the tune of R42,000. This marks the third time Lumveleni Restaurant is sponsoring the tournament within a space of six months. Ndou reiterated that their decision to sponsor the tournament stemmed from the realisation that they found responding positively to the requests from different football clubs pleading for donations and sponsorships almost every week difficult.

The tournament organiser, Mr Lloyd Mashapha, stated that only players properly registered with their respective clubs in the current soccer season would be eligible to play in the tournament. The toss for the opening matches was conducted during the ceremony, with the opening matches scheduled to be played at the Ngudza Grounds on Friday.

The champions of the tournament will take home a whopping R14,000 and a floating trophy, while the runners-up will receive R7,000. The third- and fourth-placed teams will be presented with R4,000 and R2,000 respectively.

The first batch of four matches will be played on Friday. The same number of matches are scheduled to take place on Sunday.

Two of the hot favourites to lift the trophy, Ngwenani Young Chiefs and Napoli FC, will clash on Friday. The Ngwenani derby will wrap up the day’s programme at 15:00. Before that Ngwenani Manchester City will try their luck against Mighty Superpower.

Proceeding to the quarterfinal round will not be an easy road for Matatshe FC. They will meet Manamani Blue Birds in their opening round fixture. Mukumbani Shooting Stars will have a date with Dzingahe FC.

Sunday’s programme shall be opened by the match between Ngudza Young Vultures and Maranzhe Hungry Lions at 09:30. Mulodi Freedom Birds will have only themselves to blame if they fail to beat Lunungwi Small Chiefs. Small Chiefs’ performance is not consistent. The other Sunday’s fixtures are Tshambobvu Junior Aces vs Manamani City and Musasenda Big Five vs Mukula Young Santos.

Date:28 March 2024

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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