By Isaac Massaquoi
So where does Sierra Leone Football go from here? It’s no secret anymore that President Ernest Bai Koroma has tried and failed to get some kind of a compromise between the controversially elected president of the FA, Isha Johansen and the Rodney Michael campaign team that was disqualified from contesting. A compromise that would have brought at least a semblance of peace to the so-called football family and opened the way for the national league to resume.
My information is that the president was surprised by the dogged determination of both sides to remain in their trenches and continue plotting their battle strategies for the looming showdown. The situation has been complicated by the prospects of people getting or retaining jobs in the SLFA. Those jobs would have been under threat had Dr Koroma succeeded in bringing both sides to an agreement because heads would have rolled.
On the Michael side, the feeling that they were cheated in the process and their burning desire to either overturn Johansen’s “mandate” or slice more than a pound of flesh from it leaving Johansen totally unprotected in office for the next four years has also complicated the process rendering the talks dead on arrival.
I understand Johansen was prepared to discuss a range of demands by the Michael campaign but flatly rejected their key demand for the SLFA Secretary General and the Spokesman to be sacked. Now that the president has withdrawn from the process things are shaping up to be a fight to the finish. The SLFA finds itself in the same territory where it landed when some of the same people so strongly distrusted by the Michael campaign today, rose up against Tolla Thompson’s presidency in the mid to late 90s.
There are some urgent structural weaknesses to address in the SLFA constitution because the document is badly flawed on many fronts and it was deliberately made so because those who worked on it inserted certain clauses in bad faith. They had certain people and eventualities in mind as they drafted it.
Imagine this: Upon his election as president of the FA, Nahim Khadi spent more time living in England than actually doing his job at Kingtom. I once asked senior SLFA people how come their constitution failed to address the protracted absence from office of their president. His reply was that Nahim was away for medical reasons. I suggested to him that it was time they instituted a medical board to determine the fitness of the man to run that very important institution. He refused to continue the conversation. But I left the place feeling he was happy to keep the status-quo that put real power in the hands of a few people who couldn't care less if Khadi stayed abroad throughout his mandate and continued serving as some kind of international ambassador, attending FIFA congresses while still registered as being on medical leave.
Khadi's intention to resign and encourage others to do so too, triggered a constitutional crisis only a few days to the elective congress. That was the final weapon in the hands of the SLFA old guard and their allies in the secretariat. They used it effectively but the damage it has caused makes a child play of the short-term joy of denying Michael and friends the opportunity to run the SLFA. One of those who joined Khadi in that hasty resignation reappeared to contest in his old position. Does that ring a bell? A man resigns from his job under no pressure only to return after a few months to take the same seat under the most dubious of circumstances. Things are never the way they appear. I am not among those who were surprised at all that took place at the SLFA.
Part of the qualification requirement that was used to bring down Mohamed Kallon was that he hadn't lived in Sierra Leone for five consecutive years "prior" to the congress at which he intends to run for office. Apart from the fact that I see no reason why the drafters of the constitution set the bar so high in a contemporary world where people sell their labour in strange places around the world for short periods of time, the document did not say "immediately prior” as argued by Michael.
Such documents must be so tight that doubts in interpretation must never arise. I would have ruled in favour of Kallon, like we did for Mazola when I was a member of the FA electoral commission, because his five years included sporadic visits to Freetown and his engagement with the Football Heroes of Sierra Leone project.
What is the end game for Michael and friends? Two weekends ago, I witnessed a powerful football gala organised by the so-called aggrieved party at Kaytee field in Kingtom. I hadn't been to that very depressing part of Freetown for more than ten years. I was very disappointed by what I saw in terms of the general condition of the area. Things have deteriorated to the extent that there is now hardly any difference between living conditions at Kroobay and the area surrounding Kaytee field. But I wasn't disappointed by the turnout of fans and the quality of the matches. Conservatively, there were about 2,500 people standing in the rain watching great football on a bad pitch. Even the makeshift presidential pavilion wasn't safe from the pungent smell of human waste around Kaytee field.
FC Kallon won the one day tournament but it was clear to everyone that Mighty Blackpool was the best team that day. I understand many more of such tournaments are planned for the whole country during the period of the standoff.
The real purpose of the tournament was an attempt by the Michael side of the SLFA divide to demonstrate where true power lies in this battle. No doubt they were able to prove that their support base remains intact. But the inevitable question has to be asked: What is the end game?
I ask this question because Isha Johansen has managed to secure the backing of the relevant football governing bodies who were probably fed up with the mess in Sierra Leone and were looking for a way out. Whatever way, it seems. She looks set to remain in office for four years. Can the Michael coalition hold for four years? That's a crucial question because sooner or later, cracks are bound to emerge. There are football agents in Michael's coalition who will need paperwork from the SLFA secretariat to facilitate the movement of players. They get a lot of income from selling payers around the world. They are definitely not going to be fighting the SLFA for four years. And crucially, the players themselves will soon start putting pressure on their executives. They are hoping to cross over to the lush greener pastures of European football with lucrative contracts and a chance at big time football. For how long are they going to stay within this coalition of the willing? There are many things at stake here.
I believe that Rodney and others have made their point but they should send their players back to the field now. Which doesn't mean people like me will turn up at the stadium any time soon to watch any premier league match. I have no problem with them taking the fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Zurich for a final determination but my real concern would be for Rodney and others to embark on real reforms with the football body. Their constitution must be reviewed now and it should be done dispassionately with only the betterment of football in mind. They should consciously end this unhealthy dominance of SLFA constitutional matters by people like Unisa Alim Sesay aka Awoko for very good reasons.
The truth about how this monumental fraud was committed on the nation will be revealed as soon as Johansen comes face to face with the realities of the job. Her Mr-Jones-will-come-back theory will lose any appeal soon and she must confront and address the nation's real concerns on football development.
The other reality is that she is facing very strong opponents who are implacable and will therefore keep her legitimacy in question throughout. She is also bound to disappoint some of those whose main motive of supporting her was to get jobs and other favours from her administration. Watch out for their fight back may be in a year or so.
I have to end by saying that reconciliation is the only way open to both sides in the immediate future. There's no doubt about that. But Johansen's decision to throw out all but four of the staff of the SLFA on her first day at work sends the wrong signal about her intentions in office. One of her spin doctors recently told a local radio station that she was beginning the cleaning of the SLFA that many had been talking about. My reply is simple: those being sacked now are not the real people who need cleaning-up at the SLFA. What is there to clean about the security guard who merely opens the gate to the secretariat.
I repeat my call for a proper and genuine inquiry into football administration in Sierra Leone and for the "winners" to stop this trip down ego lane and face the reality – they have FIFA and CAF backing, but too many other people are not with them.
© Politico 20/08/13
