By Alpha Abu
In June 2025 Football Stakeholders from across the country will attend the congress of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) and the obvious high point of that gathering will be the election of a president and an Executive Committee to run the affairs of the game for the next four years.
SLFA being the country’s football governing body, that election will be arguably one of the most-anticipated ever in living memory. The reasons are as clear as day; this government has provided all the needed resources in the last five years, that rekindled the interest of football fans, only for that to be tipped over by mal-administration, indiscipline, violence and failure.
President Julius Maada Bio upon assuming office in 2018 breathed life into a game that was literally in the doldrums, with an embattled Isha Johansen at the helm of a fractious football family. President Bio openly manifested his interest in the development of football and injected funds for a revival of the country’s most loved sport, rubbing shoulders with players and stakeholders alike, following the election of Thomas Daddy Brima as SLFA President, succeeding Johansen.
It's not a secret that Thomas Daddy Brima was never a frontrunner in the race, he was the dark horse at the time, and truly, he largely benefitted from Johansen’s followers who reportedly threw their weight behind him.
With high level government support, the league experienced a rebirth that was essentially seen in the large enthusiastic crowds that turned up at football venues across the country. Such was the fervor demonstrated by fans that top African journalists on DSTV sport channels singled out the Sierra Leone Premier League as the most watched of the lot in the African continent.
Down the line though, events would rear their ugly heads that would eventually mark the beginning of another period of retrogression in every facet of the game in Sierra Leone on our very watch.
Indiscipline and Corruption
Yes, Leone Stars qualified for AfCON Cameroon 2021, for the first time in a quarter of a century, but the team couldn’t even make it to the knockout stages of the competition, much to the dismay of teeming fans back home. Bo Rangers Executive Chairman, Babadi Kamara appointed Team Manager of Leone Stars by SLFA, resigned his position after the tournament, well short of his two-year contract.
Finally lifting the lid on why he resigned during a Democracy Radio interview a couple of weeks ago, the well-respected football promoter, gave a damning picture of the unpalatable happenings in Limbe’ city where Leone Stars camped for AfCON. It was a distastefully riveting expose’ of complete indiscipline, which was of unbelievable magnitude. Babadi Kamara also mentioned how on another occasion Leone Stars ended up playing the Algeria Under 23 team in a friendly in Dubai when on paper they were the senior sides of both countries billed for the encounter
Violence
The 2023/24 Premier League season witnessed very shocking assaults on referees and other match officials on an unprecedented scale, across various venues in the country.
Florence Yatta Lebbie was savagely attacked by an official of the Sierra Leone Police Female team during a Women’s Premier League match against Patricia Umu FC in Kambia. The culprit was said to be a policeman and his very institution never punished him for beating a young woman doing her work. The haunting photo of teary-eyed Yatta Lebbie squatting on the ground clutching a red card in her right hand, with her left hand resting on her chest was for many, the lowest of the lows the game could ever have degenerated to.
And there was the unnerving and shocking video of female match officials being chased, kicked and punched by mindless men at Parade Grounds in central Freetown. Similar attacks on other referees and match officials occurred at various venues including the MK 3/10 field during the match between Mogbwemo Queens and Kallon FC.
Briton, Sebastian Bowles of Sierra Leone Premier League side Luawa FC was reportedly assaulted by a colleague coach Abubakarr ‘Tostao’ Kamara of Real Republicans. Bowles quit and departed Sierra Leone.
Lack of accountability mechanisms
Apart from cagey press releases by the Women’s Premier League Board and SLFA and the reported ‘light’ punishments, nothing more stringent was ever done that could have at least assuaged victims of those very callous attacks. It is said that vices thrive where there are no checks and balances, or strong accountability mechanisms. Those shameless men who put their hands on female match officials or other men officiating matches, should have been banned for life and made to answer for their actions in a court of law. That would have served as a deterrent but the lack of effective punitive measures emboldened the thugs who terrorized football grounds, unchallenged.
Many of the perpetrators of violence at football grounds have capitalized on SLFA’s inertia, a passivity that betrayed the trust the numerous victims of football violence had for the body. Let’s face it; the game is being destroyed by people who we assume have the highest of stakes. They have nurtured and bred an unbridled affinity within their ranks, at the expense of fairness and accountability.
What can be done?
Whosoever assumes the Presidency of SLFA come June has a hell of a task if they’re sincere about opening a new page for football in Sierra Leone. The game needs a complete overhaul. The first step should be a town hall meeting involving local community league heads, district and regional football administrators, and key officials of all clubs at premier, division levels. There would emerge concrete suggestions about how to address the numerous issues that are likely to come up. From that town hall, should emerge a blueprint that will guide the SLFA on how to run our football for the next four years. It will basically be the fulcrum on which to build a roadmap for Sierra Leone football, which should be judiciously guarded and followed.
A new look Leone Stars
Chaos and recrimination have engulfed Leone Stars after their ignominious collapse in trying to qualify for the next AfCON.
Two British born players Curtis Davies and Steven Caulker have since called time on their stints with Leone Stars, but the latter didn’t go quietly. He ripped apart our officials who run the team, insisting they were not supposed to be there.
The outspoken Caulker in his open letter to Mama Salone gave fans a true insight of just how terrible, incorrigible and directionless things have become inside Leone Stars.
A foreign coach of established pedigree is what we need for a new Leone Stars; we’ve tried our brothers but the results desired by Sierra Leoneans have not been forthcoming. It is time now to time to look beyond our shores for somebody who will come into the job without a tainted mind. Someone, corrupt football stakeholders would not hold sway over, as to the players to select for the national team. Many people just don’t know whether our foreign-based players were integral in their home clubs or they were just fringe players. To be honest, some of the leagues aren’t competitive, meanwhile, some of our boys are growing old that was many a time evident in their sagging displays, yet they were still called up for national duty.
Someone, who will get the full backing of the SLFA in ensuring maximum discipline, runs through the squad, rather than be controlled by players breaking curfews and going clubbing on the eve of matches. Someone, who will be given the free will to attend grassroots football, school leagues, and overseas leagues, spot talents that can be blended with the homegrown ones. They homegrown players would form the nucleus of a side that can challenge for coveted continental and global trophies, devoid of the ‘also ran’ mentality! Leone Stars would then be able to have in their ranks players with the ambition of donning the jerseys of the best clubs in top European leagues, from where they will acquire invaluable experience, to build a successful national team.
These are all my thoughts but the truth is we can only expect a significant shift from the status-quo after the Elective Congress next year.
The Big Face-off for the SLFA Presidency
SLFA President, Thomas Daddy Brima is the incumbent, going into election next June. Already, he’s got a formidable challenger in Babadi Kamara who has openly thrown his hat into the ring. We do not know yet if other candidates will emerge in the coming months, but the truth is that these two are heavyweights.
Both men have been reaching out to the delegates who have voting rights to decide who leads SLFA in June. They say a week is a long time in politics, not to talk of 6 months, but as things stand, the incumbent has got a big battle on his hands.
Babadi Kamara has cultivated an almost fanatical following in every corner of the country because of his successful investment in football. His admirers see him as innovative, disciplined and with a penchant for success. A good number of potential delegates have already pledged their votes to him as seen in photos of them in his entourage as he continues his promotion of grassroots football in districts.
Thomas Daddy Brima will bank on his incumbency power and his interaction with delegates. Could criticisms of his indecisiveness be this undoing? Honestly, he’s got some work to do to get the majority on his side.
What is clear is that the SLFA election would be the defining moment for Sierra Leone football.
© Copyright (2024) Politico (23/12/24)
