Babadi Kamara, the man appointed by the Sierra Leone Football Association as manager of the senior national football team, Leone Stars has declined the job less than 24 hours after accepting “to work for my country and support efforts to make the football-loving public happy again”.
In a letter addressed to the General Secretary of the SLFA, Kamara indicated that he was aware of the controversy surrounding his appointment after the Ministry of Sports and the National Sports Association NSA released a statement saying they were not consulted.
The Bo Rangers Executive Chairman said he was of “the view that the job of the national senior team manager requires the commitment of all stakeholders and where this is missing the team manager is bound to fail”.
In their joint statement, the NSA and the ministry of sports say they will “continue to recognize the current team manager and in particular the welfare officer who doubles as kits manager at the same time.” The release adds that the “appointment in the national team management at all levels should be collaborative and consultative in the interest of the country and that should be devoid of political favor especially now that the SLFA elections are right at the corner”.
The leading presidential candidate in the coming SLFA election, Rodney Michael told Politico that Kamara’s decision to decline the appointment is “an intelligent one because nobody wants to be team manager and find himself embroiled in a controversy between the ministry and the SLFA”. He described the Bo Rangers Executive Chairman as “just a collateral damage. He was an easy option for the SLFA to fight the ministry because of his public profile and his success as the chairman of a leading premier league club.
Michael said the ministry and NSA were encouraged to be part and parcel of the appointment of national team official by the SLFA, “so it was important that any removal will be done in consultation with them, especially with the national team which is owned by the country”.
He said the sacked team manager Christian Dauda “did a very good job by bringing some amount of respectability and dignity to the national team and he was removed because he decided to contest the election”.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online 10/03/21
