By Isaac Massaquoi
I have watched all but one of all the matches played at the Siaka Stevens Stadium since the recent resumption of the Sierra Leone Premier League in February this year. Now, as you can imagine that’s an awful lot of time from an already busy schedule packed with my day job and other engagements in a handful of voluntary organizations. I suppose that says a lot about my love for the beautiful game, especially the local one.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a life-long fan of East End Lions Football Club and as you can imagine I am quietly confident that we will take the title this season despite the awesome power being unleashed on the field by FC Kallon, a new team that has suddenly become our greatest rivals. Never mind the humiliation we handed them the other day, they are a formidable team – their football is scientific, clean and result-oriented.
The second part of my full disclosure is that I may have to put my support for East End Lions on hold when my home district Pujehun makes it to the Premier League later this year. It’s just a matter of time.
The league may have resumed and the fans turning out in their thousands but the struggle for the soul of Sierra Leone Football continues. The embattled SLFA boss and her General Secretary are facing a trial in the High Court on an indictment filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission. FIFA has banned Sierra Leone from international football waiting for the outcome of the trail. And somebody told me the other day that we are almost certain to end up with another so-called Normalization Committee to manage the transition to a popularly-elected SLFA administration acceptable to all football stakeholders.
There are some steep hills to climb in the coming weeks and months. And all lovers of football, including the administrators and the government, should quickly realize that navigating our way over those hills would require a delicate balancing act because the whole thing risks being tipped over into a ravine more dangerous than where we just came from. And if that happens football will be the first casualty and the tremor will be felt as far as State House. At that point the government’s otherwise laudable decision to invest such huge money in the on-going league will be called into question and the sympathy they now enjoy as they try to sort out the Koroma era football Sonkor Sonkro (uncontrollable shouts and arguments) will go up in smoke. In essence the Bio administration would have lost their innocence in this matter.
ON THE FIELD
After a rather tentative, even if scrappy start, the standard of play has improved markedly. No doubt about that. To me this is all down to the effort of the young boys who are now exposed to international football by satellite TV with their hopes of making it to the European leagues. From what I have seen so far, we can pick a powerful home-based national team and do well in African football with only a few tactical adjustments in the areas of fitness, goalkeeping, goal scoring and overall game management. I have seen many nervous goalkeepers with shockingly bad decision-making, and attackers who just can’t score no matter how many times they go clear on goal and from which distance.
There are some really good coaches in the league but having done the same thing over and over again some of them are tired and bereft of the new scientific methods of coaching. They should be encouraged to retire. The players need to focus a bit more on their game and stop making a nuisance of themselves by challenging every referee decision and attacking match officials.
At the start of this league many people were prepared to forgive the bad behavior of team officials and players believing that the four-year hiatus took some toll on their attitude to the game and general comportment. In the second round of the current season which begins toward the end of April, fans will expect a bit more from players and match official on and off the pitch. Those who receive taxpayers’ money should remember to be grateful to the people and behave themselves by using their celebrity status in a positive way.
THE MATCH OFFICIALS
Inevitably there will always be complaints about the quality of refereeing at football matches. In fact no referees go into matches believing they will go through regulation time without being shouted at by fans disagreeing with one decision or the other. But I have seen some really unbelievable decisions, influenced by either corruption or incompetence during the first phase of this league.
It’s a good thing that in some of those cases the referee’s committee acted by suspending defaulting officials and in one case a referee was demoted to a lower league. Those are confidence-building measures but here’s my point: if there are only five good referees of Premier League standards, why not move them around match venues and let the people enjoy good football. There’s no point trying to give every referee a chance with the whistle just to create the illusion of fairness and inclusion. Football has only just returned and bad refereeing could destroy it.
When those fans invaded the pitch in Bo and beat up the referee, it only confirmed what I thought might happen the moment I entered the stands on that day. Almost all the Bo Rangers fans sitting behind me were convinced that their position at the foot of the football table was down to bad refereeing and some conspiracy against them that I am still trying to figure out; and not the poor quality of their game. They even said that they were systematically cheated in all their away matches. And on this day however, they were determined not to let that so-called cheating take place in their own backyard.
I was watching Bo Rangers in action for the first time since the league resumed. And on the basis of their performance in the first half, I wasn’t disappointed to have traveled from Freetown to witness the match. It was fantastic. Rangers were even showboating to the delight of their fans towards the end of that half, which I found a little weird because a one-goal lead is not something to bank on with so much time ahead.
As soon as they conceded the equalizer mid-way into the second half, the fans began to be even more critical of the referee’s decisions. There was no doubt from where I was in the stands that trouble was brewing. We can argue about the totality of what happened inside the stadium that evening and even blame as many people as we can. Like I said elsewhere, nothing justifies the open manhandling of a match official like what the rest of the world saw on social media.
PLAYER TRANSFERS
The transfer window has briefly opened to run during the two-week break between the first and second sessions of the league. This could have good and bad consequences for clubs and players.
Players who cannot make it into the first team of their parent clubs because of the stiff competition for places could seek to move on loan to other clubs to improve their chances of having a regular start.
The window could also provide an opportunity for richer and bigger clubs to raid small clubs and take away the few best players in those clubs. The PLB should work with the SLFA to properly secure the welfare of players. I am also hearing about foreign players coming into the league. That should be a good idea because that only means the local game will improve and gain more international recognition. In the mid to late 80s many Ghanaians and Guineans came over and contributed to Sierra Leone having the best league in this sub-region.
At this time of re-building the SLFA should be very clear about the number of foreign nationals on the field in every match. Many Sierra Leoneans are hoping that at the end of this league season – going into the next – we should have a national side made up of all home-based players. Internationals can join in when we face other countries but our aim should be to reverse this ridiculous situation in which we bring a player into the national team who, despite being on the books of a foreign club, has zero play time and hence is not match-fit.
THE GOVERNMENT
By putting billions of leones in to get this league going, the government has demonstrated that it is ready to support football. And to have done that at a time when FIFA had suspended Sierra Leone for reasons that are well documented, confirms this. In the immediate run, tens of thousands of people are turning up for matches at venues across the country and the young footballers and coaches have their jobs back. The small businesses that support the game are suddenly in business once more. Going forward, whether FIFA resumes support or not, the government should continue putting money into football. It’s simply the most popular sport in Sierra Leone and can create many jobs. Many jobs!
The government should also use its diplomatic contacts to get a good coach from abroad to impartially assess players all over Sierra Leone during the second round of this league or the next, and then select the backbone of our national team. We have good local coaches but they are too familiar with the players and are hence not likely to be brutal in their selection. A foreigner is not likely to be tied to any local club or be influenced by some other considerations.
Please, we should not accept any coach with questionable qualifications just because some country is helping. We don’t want another rookie coming here to use our players as guinea pigs in the development of his curriculum vitae.
(c) 2019 Politico Online
