By Prince Musa in Kenema.
The Mayor of Kenema has threatened to close the Kenema city field if football authorities do not fix the artificial turf that is meant for the pitch.
Thomas Baio’s threat came out of a prolong frustration over whose responsibility it was to finally fix the artificial turf on the Kenema City playing field. Kenema’s artificial turf pitch is part of a FIFA project that has stalled.
The turf had been delivered to Kenema almost a year ago, but contractors have refused to fix the turf due to administrative bottleneck between government, Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) and the Kenema District Football Association (KDFA).
‘’Closing the field will draw the attention of government to upgrade the standard of the city field. Since the artificial turf was brought, it’s over a year now [and] nothing has been done to fix it up. I have contacted KDFA several times on why the turf has not been fixed, but no substantive reason has been given to me,” Mayor Baio said.
“The Council will take decision to close the city field for all sporting activities including the premier league, until the artificial turf is fixed,’’ he added.
In a show of support by his Council members, the deputy Chief Administrator said they were in support of the Mayor’s decision until the pitch is fixed.
Mohamed Vandi said: “Council is supervising the city field on behalf of the people of Kenema and the decision by the Mayor to close the city field will be a wake-up call for stakeholders to come in.”
The field is home to the district’s only Premier League team, Kamboi Eagles. The Team Manager of Eagles, Ali El- Ali, told Politico in an interview on Tuesday: “We don’t have much to say on this. We will only continue to appeal to the Mayor. His main problem is with KDFA and the SLFA. But like I said, we can only appeal to him not to close the field for now. Because if he does, we will have to spend a lot of money to play our home games somewhere else.”
The Eagles are currently leading the table with 10 points after four games. They are set to host Mighty Blackpool from Freetown on Sunday.
The Mayor didn’t announce exactly when he would go through with his threat. Council authorities said they were still willing to have a dialogue on this. A shutdown this week could affect the team’s home fixture this weekend.
Politico contacted KDFA officials to reply to allegations made by Baio. In a very brief interview, the president of KDFA, Denis Gotor Lansana, said: “As an executive, we will wait to see the closing of the city field by the Mayor, then we will take it from there. As a chairman, I can’t say beyond this now.”
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