Stadium of Life set for completion

In the years since, the club has evolved and grown to become a champion for gender equality that has various age group teams for men and women.
In 2020, it became the first club in Africa to commit to equal budgets for the club’s women’s and men’s sides.
By building the Stadium of Life, Kick4Life are continuing their trendsetting ways by becoming the first-ever Lesotho club to construct and own a stadium.
The stadium, located within walking distance of Maseru’s city centre, is expected to hold 1 300 spectators and will primarily be used by Kick4Life Ladies, the club’s senior women’s team campaigning in the Women’s Super League (WSL), as well as the senior men’s team in the A-Division and the club’s junior teams.
The construction of the pioneering project started in April 2023 and the plan was to have the stadium ready by last December, but work is continuing on the site and the new deadline to finish is December this year.
The current building work is on the stadium’s west stand, on the longer side of the pitch, where the coaches’ dugouts are set to be.
Work on the west stand is projected to finish by the end of August after which work on the north stand will begin.
In a wide-ranging interview with thepost on Tuesday, Kick4Life’s Country Director, Motlatsi Nkhahle, said the stadium’s pitch enclosure is complete and its irrigation system is fully functional.
The plan is for the Stadium of Life to host home games by January next year, Nkhahle said.
The stadium’s pitch is playable but construction work on the stands is the reason preventing Kick4Life’s teams from using the ground.
Kick4Life also has recently completed renovations on their artificial turf grounds, which are next to the stadium and are used for the small-sided five-a-side version of football.
“At the moment we are training at Ratjomose Primary School, we are struggling (because) we have three teams at different levels. Fortunately, we have just completed the renovation of our five-a-side pitch, so the teams are able to split themselves, some are here, some at Ratjomose,” Nkhahle said.
“We are hoping that when the west stands (of the stadium) are done, then one team will at least have one half of the pitch to use for training and that should help in terms of relieving the pressure,” he continued.
Nkhahle said Kick4Life have had a dream of constructing their own stadium for over 10 years and the club approached their supporters four years ago to help them with the design.
That original design from the fans’ input was a stadium made with the traditional ingredients of concrete, metal and steel, but it was costly and fundraising became a challenge.
Despite the lack of finances to construct a stadium, Kick4Life refused to give up on their dream and they started toying around with the idea of changing the materials for building.
That brainstorming period coincided with a moment when the organisation was redefining its vision to advocate for action to curb climate change.
That is when Kick4Life decided to go for a green, sustainable option – timber.
Not only is it affordable, but sustainably sourced timber aligns with their vision.
Lady Luck also played her part when the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) came on board in 2022 to help with the construction of what will be the world’s first FSC approved stadium.
The FSC is an international non-profit organisation established in 1993 that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests via timber certification for individuals, businesses, governments, and NGOs.
“I am excited about the building of the stadium because it has inspired a number of people to come forward and see if they could emulate this,” Nkhahle said.
“For example, I hosted the Minister of Sport here, I took him on a tour and his one question was: ‘can Kick4Life allow us to do the same thing in the districts? We said, yes. We are here to share the knowledge, it’s not something we want to gate-keep,” Nkhahle added.
“The reason FSC decided to support us is because they are trying to market this stadium globally to encourage others, they want to see more stadiums in timber. If they want to see it all over the world, what would prevent us as Kick4Life from seeing it all over the country?” he continued.
Meanwhile, a delegation of six people is set to jet off to Wales in September as part of Kick4Life’s partnership with Wrexham AFC, a rising professional club that campaigns in England’s third tier of football.
The delegation is set to be in the United Kingdom for about a week.
Nkhahle said the travelling party would tour Wrexham’s facilities and observe their hosts’ work, and forge deeper connections between the two clubs.
He said the possibilities are endless.
“It is about seeing how they do things and then sitting down and forging a way forward,” Nkhahle said.
“There are so many areas (that we can learn from). There are social enterprise activities, community programming, academy (football), and there are soccer schools,” he added.
“What’s going to happen is that (the delegation) will go (to the UK) and they will come back to implement some of the things. At least, that’s what I can say for the time being.”