The first-ever female Premier League to be hosted in Sierra Leone just ended with the Mogbewemo Queens taking the trophy to the far South of Sierra Leone. To get an insight into the entire process leading to the championship, the Premiere League Board Chairperson, Mrs. Asmaa James sat with our Editor Mabinty Magdalene Kamara.
Politico: The first-ever female premier league that just ended how was it like?
Asmaa James: It was very interesting! I am somebody with a high interest in sports, I love soccer and most people know me for hyping my team East End Lions. And in 2019, Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai co-opted me into the Male premiere league Board and for the very first time, we had a very successful premier league which is down in the history of this country, as one of the best.
So since that premiere league, I have been very active in football and I am also the chair lady for the East End Lions football club. So football is very close to my heart and because of that, with my participation and contributions so far, the Sierra Leone Football Association deems it fit that I lead the Board for the Female Premier League. It was seven of us and I happened to be the Chair.
It was an interesting one when you consider the fact that you were just a supporter cheering your team up but now you have to be in administration to ensure that you run a league for the very first time in Sierra Leone which is a national league. So the journey was a bitter and sweet experience sometimes but on a whole, it was a really good journey.
Politico: So we have seen the end of the league where a winner emerged but as you said, the journey was a bitter-sweet experience. How were you able to ensure that you get those female footballers to be committed to the game?
Asmaa James: So we are just the board overseeing things. It is the responsibility of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists to give us the teams and by the time we came on board, the FA had been running some leagues where they chose twelve teams across the country. So they just handed us those teams prepared, saying these are the teams you now run. So the Sierra Leone Football Association has a position they call ahead of the competition.
The head of the competition who is Sorie Ibrahim Sesay is the one that planned the fixtures with the teams. So they gave us the fixtures indicating the teams that will be playing against each other. But we planned on when we wanted to start the league and even though they appointed us in March, we started the league in October because we needed to prepare for all the fixtures, the male league was ongoing and we didn’t want to clash. So we began in October, onto November, and December, and had a break and in January the second round commenced on to this March when the league just ended on the 31st.
Politico: So being a girl's advocate and also presiding over a board that has to do with women in football, how do you address issues of Sexual harassment? What was your stance in terms of ensuring that those women and girls were protected from any form of abuse or violation?
Asmaa James: They were very much protected and like I said that will be my number one success. We were in the preparations till October when the game started. We met with the parents of the girls, and the coaches explaining to them that the girls should play the game and nothing else but the game, and they really listened to us. We engaged the parents so they to have confidence in the managers; we also spoke to the managers to show them their limits with the girls, where they should cross and where they shouldn’t cross to allow the girls to play the ball.
And I am so happy that for the whole of this season that we have played, there has been no complaint of sexual harassment, no complaint of any other issue that will disrupt the game and we are so happy about that. It will be my number one legacy that I am going to leave behind that no major violence occurred.
They will score and have a disagreement over things but at the end of the day, they will come together. But to say sexual harassment, no and we are very happy as a board.
Politico: You have said that you might or might not come again as part of the board since your one-year mandate has ended. Going forward how do you ensure that those girls are encouraged and enticed to stay focused on football?
Asmaa James: The good thing is that the girls are really committed and in all of these, the managers at the managerial levels had their issues but the girls were focused and true to the game. They know what football is. Today in America female football is more popular than male football and in England, the female team has won the world cup. A few years from now, female football is going to take over and people will be more interested in watching women play than men. And the girls are committed, they stay focused, they really played the game and they know what it means to play football.
The winners will have to play in the CAF competition and if you go to the CAF competition, that is huge for you because from there you would not know who will come to buy you in Sierra Leone. So they are really focused and whether or not I am back on the board, the girls are already determined and the team managers are also determined to push the girls to excel in football.
Politico: Before we go to the preparedness of the team to face the CAF competition, how about the motivation to make the girls stay in the game I meant financially what is it like for the girls and the teams?
Asmaa James: Well the teams are constrained, that is very clear like all other sectors but the managers are doing well. When we came, we tried to give them a seed grant although it wasn’t much we gave them sixty million Leones to each of the teams. But that is the existing challenge. Teams like Mogbewemo Queens which won the league, are far off and the manager that has the team said he has been with the girls for a very long time now. They have been in camp and he pays their school fees. To move from Mogbewemo to Kabala for a match that’s really huge in terms of cost. To move from Kabala to Kailahun that’s also huge but they were the ones financing it. Although we gave them seed money it was very small. But I am sure that with the exposure that this league has got, sponsors will come up, managers will show up and they will find a way to raise funds for those girls.
Politico: So how prepared are the champions for the CAF competition?
Asmaa James: Oh yes! This league was really good for the girls. If you see these girls play football, they play like real professionals. And they know what it means to be in competition. Like Kahula FC the second runners-up, they had the highest goal scorers. They know they should play and are determined to do it in international competitions.
Politico: Where do you hope to see female football in Sierra Leone in the years to come?
Asmaa James: This legacy that I have created, I want to see it to the next level and I am optimistic that with this league that just ended, we should have a formidable national female team. We want to see Sierra Leone in women's CAF competitions; we want them to play international football.
Politico: You are a woman that has stood up to many things and for many things. Apart from Football do you have any way you can mentor those girls to be a better version of themselves?
Asmaa James: Yes, and we will continue to mentor and inspire them in diverse ways.
Politico: Did the board not have issues of parents being against their girls going into sports for fear of them abandoning family lives?
Asmaa James: Well some parents are opposed to their girls playing football but my sister female football is the next thing to see. We have seen Serena Williams and others play games like Tennis but they dedicate a certain time to say let me have a child and a home and then they continue their career again depending on their fitness. I will continue to talk to parents to allow their girls to play football.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (12/04/23)
