Following our recent success as A Division Southern Stream champions, we can confirm that Kick4Life Juventude will not be accepting promotion to the Premier League, and as such we have made a strategic decision to remove ourselves from the men’s LEFA league structures.
Moving forward, we will continue running the Kick4Life Academy for boys and girls, and our women’s team will continue competing in the Women’s Super League. We will also continue to run a youth men’s team as part of our Academy & Club who will compete in friendlies, international tournaments and tournaments organised by ourselves in Lesotho.
This decision has been taken to ensure that we can stay true to our mission of providing life-changing opportunities for student athletes from Lesotho to secure scholarships to study and play soccer at international universities. Under current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules, any player who plays in the Lesotho Premier League becomes immediately ineligible for a scholarship.
Following our successful season, we wrote to the NCAA to seek clarity on whether the introduction and ongoing evolution of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules would now enable our players to compete in the Premier League while still retaining their eligibility within the NCAA system. The NCAA responded, informing us that the rules have not changed, and that our players will not be able to play in the Premier League without losing their eligibility for scholarships. Furthermore, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), another major college sports association & governing body in the USA, confirmed that any players participating in the Lesotho Premier League will lose a year of eligibility for every year played in the league.
With confirmation that the rules regarding the Premier League and eligibility have not changed, accepting promotion would have harmed our mission and would have prevented young Basotho from accessing life-changing opportunities. We therefore have chosen not to accept promotion, and have decided to remove ourselves from the league.
Kick4Life Co-Founder, Pete Fleming said: “It is extremely disappointing for our players and coaches that we are unable to accept the promotion which they earned, but the mission of Kick4Life is to provide life-changing student athlete scholarships for young Basotho, and that cannot be achieved by playing in the Premier League, as players will lose their eligibility as soon as they step on the pitch.
“The fact we achieved another promotion is evidence of our enormously successful Academy model and we are proud of the players and coaches for their fantastic achievement. We are excited about this new model for our men’s Academy players and team, and we are fully committed to continue developing young male and female student athletes. This decision reflects our strong commitment to that mission”.
Co-founder, Steve Fleming added: “In making this decision we also recognised the challenges of remaining in the league system whilst rejecting promotions, and the potential impact this has on other teams and the system in general. This also influenced our decision to withdraw from the men’s football pyramid. We will, of course, be supporting all of our current players to further opportunities, whether that is through linking them to opportunities at other clubs or remaining in the K4L Academy and playing within our own club ecosystem, which also includes access to other components of our model including academic support, work experience and paid employment opportunities”.
