By Isaac Massaquoi
The propaganda coup the Ministry of Sport and their SLFA poodle hoped to pull off by sacking Johnny McKinstry as head coach of the national team has backfired. The whole enterprise is a farce that has, in reality, further exposed the unbelievable disorganisation and poverty of ambition at the heart of football administration in Sierra Leone.
Scratch just below the surface and every Sierra Leone football fan would admit that even in the most ideal of conditions we had no chance against any of the teams in our AFCON qualifying group. When I say ideal conditions, I mean that there was no Ebola; no unnecessary suspension of key players from the team over patently bogus match-fixing allegations; there was enough time to train and of course there was enough money available to make all this possible. So to now turn around and sack McKinstry because we reaped what we sowed was just a failed attempt to cover some badly bruised faces. It was very easy to see through that.
I was never an instant convert to the Johnny McKinstry school of football management at the big stage. In fact I argued that for the 29-year-old Irishman with no experience in African football to make that transition from running a football academy that is yet to produce any stars, was a huge leap of faith. But once in office McKinstry showed a lot of promise. I was hoping that as a young man aiming for the top, he would have been allowed to stamp his authority on the team and bring in new faces and style of play. He was very much a man for the future. He has now been sacked by an administration that believes in quick fixes and instant joy. The SLFA could simply have naturalised some Brazilians and Columbians who can't get into their national teams - instant joy.
I have nothing against the new coach, Atto Mensah. In fact, as a committed fan of East End Lions Football Club, Mensah should be my guy. But his new job is bigger than East End Lions - it's about Sierra Leone. So he should expect even his former fans like me to look at him from another angle.
You know, there's a lot of romance around Atto Mensah in Sierra Leone football and I can understand why. In the English Premier League, Atto Mensah in his playing days could be compared to Arsenal's Mesut Ozil. He helped create many goals and he was so well-behaved on the field that even those fierce Mighty Blackpool and Real Republicans fans who had very little common ground with EE Lions, liked Mensah. And his decision to take up Sierra Leonean citizenship was a masterstroke. But like Ozil, there were times on the field when he was completely absent and his body language didn't give any sense of urgency even when his team was under pressure. Fans like me hate that.
To me the real impact players in that team were Simeon Awuah who averaged one goal a match - including that famous one against Real Republicans - to win the championship in 1980. Ben Morthy, who ravaged defences from the left side of midfield and Philip Buckman the man who held the defence together. These were all Ghanaians. But the greatest of E.E Lions player was Gbessay Sesay.
Without any hesitation I can compare Gbessay Sesay to Frank Lampard - he scored many goals from midfield, hardly missed a penalty and was a real leader on the field. So please let's not be too romantic about Atto Mensah.
I feel uncomfortable sometimes to openly criticise Paul Kamara because of the inspirational role he played to aspiring journalists in this country in the 80s. We admired his courage to take on the one-party authorities in Sierra Leone and his willingness to help young journalists. Many who hold leadership positions in the trade today, cut their journalistic teeth at his newspaper, For Di People. He gave us reason to believe in journalism. But, frankly, his performance as Minister of Sport leaves much to be desired.
By using his political clout to mastermind the controversial election of Isha Johansen as SLFA president; by collaborating with Johansen to accuse her perceived opponents who are formidable football personalities in their own right of match-fixing without any shred of evidence so far; by openly meddling in basic SLFA duties like appointing and sacking national coaches - from the ill-fated Swede, Lars Olof Mattesson to Johnny McKinstry. Kamara has made it very difficult for people like us to continue believing that the awful SLFA baggage he brought with him to the job of sport minister has not totally clouded his judgments in office.
Kamara has now brought Atto Mensah to coach our national team. A team recently rated by FIFA as the 7th best in Africa and a man who is fresh from a training school with no experience of coaching even in the Kroo Bay League. That's a blunder of incalculable magnitude that our mentor will regret. This was what I meant by "poverty of ambition".
This country must once again confront the reality of what has gone wrong with the game. Firstly, No matter what spin doctors say there's a chronic lack of investment in sport in this country. I understand the argument about competing national concerns but sports, particularly football, deserves more. It's not enough for the government to make sporadic payments for international matches covering air tickets, match bonuses and per diems.
It's also not enough to always put a gun to the head Mercury International or some mobile phone companies at the last minute for cash to be able to run the national team. National teams that have made it on the big stage have operated in a much more structured and predictable environment.
Secondly, we must have a properly functional national football league. The Ebola excuse is unacceptable. Our league is broke and unable to produce good results in terms of players for the future. So aging national players have continued to represent the country long after they were due for retirement. Their only claim to being serious contenders for international football is their attachment to teams in nondescript leagues in south-east Europe. We can only replace them when a proper league is running back home.
Let me give an example: Zaingally is the best player in our team now but it was only after he had proved himself against mighty Freddy Kanoute of Mali that he was confirmed in his current role. Zaingallay it was who stopped Kanoute causing trouble in Freetown. Pa Saffa, our main defender for that match, had been run ragged by the Malian and was just one more cynical foul away from being thrown out when he was substituted and Zaingallay given the task of keep Kanoute quiet. He did that job effectively. There are still players in our team, of Pa Saffa's age, skill and mentality who are fomenting the trouble that has consumed McKinstry.
The SLFA is the biggest loser in all this. The current executive is unable to stand up to minister Paul Kamara because he helped bring them to power. Unless they are ready to take up their responsibilities, they should resign. It make no sense telling the world you are a football association but you constantly "collaborate" with politicians to take basic decisions like appointing a coach.
Johnny McKinstry is probably back on his desk at the Craig Bellamy Foundation to continue his football development work as planned but Sierra Leone football is facing an uncertain future. We keep starting again and again. It's anybody's guess how long Mensah lasts in the dug-out.
(C) Politico 23/09/14
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