By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
30 teams in the Northern Region of the country have started playing qualifying games for two spots in Sierra Leone Premier League. The teams are competing for an extra two spots in the country’s top tier league. Northern region is the only region that does not have any team in the league.
The 30 teams include Northern region power houses like Wusum Stars, Kolifa Stars, Bai Bureh Warriors, Kolenten Rovers. All these four teams have already been drawn out of the preliminaries which started over the weekend.
The preliminaries have been divided in to two zones, two accommodate the new administrative North West block. North East block and North West block are expected to produce three teams each to join the four teams that have already been drawn in to the main playoff round.
Teams have been drawn from Kambia, Koinadugu, Falaba, Bombali, Tonkolili and Port Loko district.
The Head of Competition at the FA, Sorie Ibrahim Sesay said: “One off matches will be played to see three qualifying teams progress to the next round. We intend to hold the national playoff as soon as we complete these rounds.”
Sesay was explaining the formula of these qualifier games to journalists during a press conference.
All ten teams that will make it to the final playoff round will have to play each other and the top two with the most accumulated points will qualify.
The eventual qualification of these teams will mean the Premier League will now have 16 teams. This decision by the FA has not come without scrutiny.
Two months ago when the FA announced the expansion plans the Head of Media and Marketing at the FA, Ibrahim Kamara explained to Politico that the expansion is about inclusion.
“Basically, it’s for national inclusion so that every region is represented at the end of the day in the top tier league. Before now all other regions have representatives in the league. A region as big as the North didn’t have any,” Kamara said.
He further explained: “This decision is actually in line with what is interpreted in the Sierra Leone Football Association constitution. Article 34 to be precise makes it really clearly that the only body that has got the authority and the right to determine the number of teams in any competition organized under the SLFA is the executive committee.”
Kamara’s explanation is one that some members of the FA are bitter about. Alhaji Komba, the Acting Secretary General of FC Kallon believes that the decision is canvassing votes. Komba said his contention is not more with the inclusion of Northern region teams but rather the procedure of doing it.
“There are 35 members of SLFA and 47 delegates so the moment you say you will promote these two teams without any due process means you are increasing the number of delegates as provided for in the SLFA statutes to 49 then you should increase the number of members to 37. That tells you straight away that it has congress mandate and you should not do it on your own. Because to increase the number of delegates and members of the SLFA only congress can give that mandate, not even the executive committee,” Komba explained.
“They should have informed us through congress. Call congress just for this purpose, involve the membership,” he added.
The new season is supposed to start in October. A date has not been announced. There is no clear idea whether the current Premier League teams will contest this. However, the playoffs have already started.
S/L PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYOFF RESULTS
Ocean Boys 2-4 Seattle FC (Post match penalties)
Yoni Shooting Stars 4-3 Bombali Shebora (Post match penalties)
Hydro Stars 4-3 Konikay Stars (Post match penalties)
Makelleh FC 2-0 Annex FC
Koya Rangers 1-0 Marampa Stars
Bullom Stars 2-0 Lamboi FC
Bankasoka FC 4-3 Osman FC (Post match penalties)
Area Best FC 1-0 Tom FC
Cheltanham FC 3-0 Great Scarcies
FC Katara v Bamoi FC had to be postponed after both teams failed to win during the match and during the post-match penalties.
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