The Dihlabeng Local Municipality has made massive investment in the development of soccer in the area as part of its efforts to take young people off the streets and away from the life of crime and drug abuse.

The executive mayor, Tjhetane Mofokeng, has donated R250 000 for the development of soccer in the grassroots structures in the area and has promised to increase it to R500 000 in the next financial year.

The local league, which was known as the Safa Dihlabeng Local Football League, is now known as the Dihlabeng Mayoral League and consists of 18 teams based in municipality.

The new sponsored league will see the winner of the league receiving a whopping R20 000 in cash.

“Give me a perfect reason why we should not invest our money in sport, especially our young and talented football players,” said Mofokeng during the launch of the league which was held in the Bethlehem recently.

The mayor said his dream is to see the league receiving an annual sponsorship of R1-million.

“Sport produces healthy minds and people with responsibility. I believe if all our people could be involved in sport, the level of crime will decrease.”

Maseru Mphati, the chairperson of the league, said they were proud and elated with the financial injection of a quarter of a million rand in football development.

“The financial injection will touch the lives of many of the young people who are currently participating at amateur levels. Many of them have got the potential to represent our municipality at a higher level, said Mofokeng.

Meanwhile, the Dihlabeng Local Football Association has launched a new women’s football league to bolster football in the region

The South African Football Association (SAFA) affiliated Local Football Association (LFA) in the region deemed it necessary to facilitate a programme that gave birth to the league, with the aim of breathing new life into football in the eastern Free State municipality.

Mphati said the league will consist of five teams that will represent the five towns that constitute the municipality.

“The league will include teams from Bohlokong in Bethlehem; Fateng Tse Ntsho in Paul Roux; Mautse in Rosendal; Mashaeng in Fouriesburg and Kgubetswana in Clarens. There are a very few clubs that are playing women’s football, so the ideas is to revive women’s football in our municipality.”

Mphati said he is confident that the establishment of the women’s league will develop future stars in the area.

“I am very happy that as part of our development programmes in Dihlabeng all divisions are playing football. We have the under-15 and under-17 leagues; the mayoral league; the unit leagues and now this women’s league.”

Mphati added that the Dihlabeng Local Municipality is assisting the LFA with the travelling costs of the teams, but added that the association is still looking for more sponsors.

The league will officially kick off at the end of July this year, where all the different team will travel across the five towns to honour their individual fixtures and the matches will be played on Saturdays.