By Alpha Abu
On the 31st of July 2024, those who matter in football in Sierra Leone will assemble at the Bank of Sierra Leone complex at Kingtom for the annual Premier League Awards. This year it’s called the Leone Rock Premier League Awards because the league board allowed the Chinese-owned mining company, Leone Rock to market their business that way having paid 50 thousand US dollars to support the league. We will come to that before the new season resumes. Anyway, footballers, administrators and ordinary fans always look forward to this event. And they have a right to. After a long hard slug during the season with outstanding performance, it’s always a good thing for people to be rewarded. The idea is to motivate them to do more and challenge others as we enter the new season.
From the outset, we want to congratulate Victor Lewis and his team in the PLB for bringing us thus far. They struggled through the shark-infested waters of lack of funds, atrocious club management and refereeing and sometimes largely uninformed and vitriolic attacks on social media in particular. Lewis has had a long career in football administration, so he knew what he was up against when he signed up for the job. It’s a fact that some of those attacks shaved so close to the skin that at different points during this league, morale was very badly shaken especially against the backdrop of other teething challenges in a job that offered little in terms of personal gain.
Now back to the awards ceremony. We are hearing that some clubs and officials will definitely boycott the event to register a kind of mild protest over the way they were treated throughout this league, and they are at a real loss as to the direction of travel in the SLFA under Thomas Daddy Brima. That’s understandable.
For the second time in as many years lowly Wilberforce Strikers, owned by Thomas Daddy Brima, the president of the SLFA has been the beneficiary of unexplained preferential treatment by the key judicial bodies around the Premier League. No matter how Thomas Daddy Brima tries to explain and wriggle his way out of this, the optics are really poor and unbelievably suspicious.
Last year, Wilberforce Strikers took six points in the dying moments of the league as a result of actions on the table by people appointed by Thomas Daddy Brima and in the process forced Kamboi Eagles into relegation. A frustrated and defenceless Eagles management turned to the courts.
In the end it was only the magnanimity of the judge that saved the SLFA from monumental disgrace. As we publish this the main issues in that settlement remain unresolved.
This year, Wilberforce took another three points they really didn’t need and once again forced another team – this time Freetown City Football Club into relegation. Given their performance on that day and events elsewhere, FCFC were definitely qualified to remain in the league. If this matter lands before the same judge, what does anyone expect his disposition to be towards Wilberforce Strikers and the SLFA itself?
In all of this we have not said a word about how Wilberforce Strikers entered the Premier League and the statement that makes generally about football administration under Thomas Daddy Brima. We know the story of how FC Johnasen came to the Premier League and how Gem Stars became East End Tigers but we can assure anybody that the circumstances are completely different from how in the middle of an ongoing league, Thomas Daddy Brima bought struggling Central Parade, re-christened them Wilberforce Strikers and gave them a seat at the Premier League table. In subsequent editions, we will tell the backstory of those eleventh hour deals that resulted in this ridiculous situation.
This is certainly not a full review of what happened throughout the last league. We have simply highlighted a few issues as we prepare for the award ceremony in the next few days. We have not seriously talked about the standard of refereeing and general football management. We have no idea who won the FA Cup but already Sierra Leone has a team in the continental league that, under normal circumstances ought to have emerged winners of the FA Cup. We have not said a word about how the courts were compelled to throw Thomas Daddy Brima and his staff out of their headquarters over an issue he could have disposed of on his first day in office.
Once again, we have been pushed into a position where we have no choice now but to publish what we know about all issues around our beautiful game for the benefit of our numerous readers. Bob Marley says, “in this great future you can forget your past.” In the SLFA, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Watch this space!
Copyright © 2024 Politico (29/07/24)
