By Alpha Abu
The Executive of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has appointed Umar Bah as Team Manager of the home based Leone Stars.
His appointment on the 24th of June this year could herald the dawn of an era of progression for home raw talents. Bah’s growing pedigree in football management has attracted greater attention after his pivotal role in the reawakening of sleeping giants, Real Republicans Football Club, one of the most glamorous sides in the 1970s and 80s , the ultimate decades of passionate partisan football in the country.
Having as Chairman steered Republicans to top the recent Western Region Division One football League and qualify for the playoffs, aiming for a return to the Sierra Leone Premier League next season, the warm reception Bah received from the home Leone Stars players upon his first interaction with them as their new Team Manager shows just the level of trust and respect the boys have for him.
The players expressed how excited they were to have him as their Team Manager and said they were more than determined to bring good results.
Bah told Politico that his focus now is to provide the enabling environment for the boys to qualify for the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship CHAN 2023, a tournament set aside for the continent’s home based players.
Sierra Leone is pitted against Cape Verde in the two -legged tie to be played in Morocco, with the first match scheduled for the 24th July this year, and the second, a week later. The winners after the two games will clash with Mali for a place in the tournament to be hosted by Algeria next year.
Bah sees the obvious task ahead and says the entire Management, Technical Team including Coach Francis Zappa are all planning and working hard to see the boys make it to CHAN, a tournament Sierra Leone has never qualified for.
He puts premium on collective efforts and says he will bring on board all the stakeholders to share ideas on how to take the team forward.
He watched the home players engaged their foreign- based counterparts who are off season, in a friendly match that ended 1-1 at the Attouga field on Wednesday 29 June 2022, and was pleased with what he saw.
But he was quick to point out the need to instil discipline in the squad and said one rule is to totally ban the players from participating in mini leagues, instituting penalties on any defaulting player.
Generally he said he sees improvement in football in the country, and that the prospect for the game is bright.
“The game is developing and attracting people who are changing the narrative”, Bah stated. He was also full of praise for the present SLFA Executive saying “they are very serious when I started dealing with them and they are very aggressive in making things happen which is a source of motivation for me”.
He pointed out that football involves a lot of resources and believed that with the support of Government and other areas, and with the blessings of God; they will be able to surmount the challenges associated with the game.
He called for Sierra Leoneans to be behind the team and said the boys are very talented and will be going for a win, though he admitted that football outcome can be unpredictable or unjust at times.
Bah is a well- established businessman; he is currently the CEO of Sierramin Bauxite Mining Company. He also owns Simbakoro Auto Outlet vehicle dealerships in Sierra Leone and North America.
The current champions of CHAN are Morocco. Some four Algerian cities will serve as venues for the African nations championship finals that will run from 8-31 January 2023.
The tournament was first held in Ivory Coast in 2009 and was won by Democratic Republic of Congo. It was established by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) so that home grown players will be able to represent their countries at international level, and expose themselves globally.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (04/07/22)
