By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Ministry of Sports and the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) are in a standoff over a Le720million donation. The money which was approved by President Julius Maada Bio is meant to assist the FA for its administrative cost and the running of the FA Cup. The Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Nyelenkeh told Politico over the weekend that the FA have ‘rejected’ the money.
According to the Minister, the interim executive of Vice President Mazola Kamara had pleaded with President Bio during the FIFA suspension to support the FA with its administrative cost and sponsor the FA Cup. But when the cheque was finally ready, he decided that it will be best if Isha Johansen had it, since it coincided with the dismissal of her case and her eventual reinstatement as President of the FA.
“I was briefing her about how government had supported the league in the country. And then I mentioned the Le720million that the President had approved for the administrative cost of running the FA and support for the FA cup. Then Madam told me clearly that ‘Mr Minister, I can’t compromise government money with FIFA money.’ She said it is one of the things that FIFA frowns at,’” Nyelenkeh said.
“So what does that implies? It means you don’t want it. They rejected the money,” he added.
In a telephone interview with the Media and Marketing Officer of the FA, Ibrahim Kamara said they didn’t deny any money because none was presented to them.
“The Ministry of Sports has never presented such amount to the FA. So how can we deny something that was never given to us.” Kamara said.
“What Madam Johansen actually told the Minister was that ‘we cannot take this money and put it in to the FIFA account because FIFA account is purely meant for FIFA funding.’ FIFA follows up its funding. At the end of the day they send auditors and if you put other money into this account it will be difficult to track how FIFA money was spent and how government money was spent.”
Kamara added that Johansen had instead suggested during the meeting that the ministry keeps the money and invest in the necessary structures the FA will be setting up to run the competition.
“So, she suggested that the Ministry holds on to the money and let them spend it. In the sense that wherever to provide the structures we are going to ensure the league runs and if there is any case of payments to be made let those payments be made directly from the sports ministry. As it is done when it comes to international matches,” Kamara said.
He further explained: “When it comes to international matches, we prepare budgets and give it to the ministry for the attention of finance. These moneys do not reach the SLFA directly, they do everything. They buy tickets for players; we just invite them.”
Despite these explanations from the FA, the Ministry says almost two weeks after the meeting the FA has not written back to them for clear instructions. Nyelenkeh said he has since ordered that the cheque to be suspended.
“We haven’t seen them write to us to direct us how to pay the money” Nyelenkeh said.
He added: “I have returned the money. We have cancelled the cheque. We haven’t retired the cheque yet though, if they are interested, they can still write us, then we can pay the cheque. If they don’t want the money, before we retire the money, we want a letter from them to say they can’t accept the money because it compromises FIFA money.”
It is not clear whether the FA would write to accept or reject the money. Kamara said they are waiting for the cheque to be presented to them before writing back.
“They never even wrote to us in the first place. We were informed about the cheque verbally and that was the response that came from Madam. We were actually waiting for them to present the cheque to us and then we will write in black and white to officially respond,” he said.
Over 500 teams across the country are expected to take part in this year’s FA Cup. There is no timeline on when the competition will start. A disagreement on such high level only affects thousands of young players whose careers have either stalled or been wasted in the last four and half years.
The Minister of Sport said he will not advocate in the future for any support to help the FA.
He said: “I am not sure we will give any money to SLFA again. The best we can do is to support the clubs now. That is what I will advocate for in the future to the President.”
“It is not the responsibility of the government to fund the FA to run football in this country. Our primary responsibility is to support the national team. All what we are doing now is just to help,” Nyelenkeh added.
Sierra Leone football has undergone its fair share of wrangling. There is no telling where this latest standoff between the FA and the government will end. What is clear is that, it will stunt the development of the game in the country.
© 2019 Politico Online
