By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The Sierra Leone male national football team Leone stars’ performance in international matches has been abysmal and needs urgent and timely resurrection.
After sojourning in the wilderness for twenty six (26) years following their outing at the 1996 African Cup of Nations in South Africa, they were again fortunate to participate in the 2021 elite continental competition hosted by Cameroon. Leone stars qualified for the tournament after defeating Benin 1-0 in a rescheduled game at the Lassana Conte Stadium in Conakry, a victory that marked the team’s only win throughout the qualification campaign.
Both teams had the same number of points, and Sierra Leone only qualified on goal difference.
During the AFCON in Cameroon, Leone stars had a stunning draw against top African teams in Algeria and Ivory Coast and were later eliminated by Equatorial Guinea. The loss to Equatorial Guinea saw Sierra Leone exit the competition without a win.
Coming home from the AFCON tournament in Cameroon meant the national team had a lot of work to do in terms of incorporating new players to the squad, replacing the older folks, and a system review of tactics.
After the AFCON outings, Leone Stars played three friendlies for the Antalya Cup in Turkey and got defeated 3-0 by Togo and won two other matches 1-0 and 2-1 to Liberia and Congo Brazzaville, respectively.
Despite the earlier defeat against Togo, the performance of the boys at the Antalya tournament was dubbed to be the best for quite some time . Football loving fans thought that the team was on the verge of regaining its past glory.Young players like Kallum Ceesay, Kamil Conteh, Issa Kallon, Yaya Kallon Augustus Kargbo, Al-Hassan Koroma and many others playing top football in Europe and other parts of the world were called up and they brought more exposure to the squad.
Instead of the team progressing after the Turkey friendlies, retrogression took hold. The friendly matches against South Africa and DR Congo on the 24 th and 27 th September respectively, showed the team lacked tactics, which led to embarrassing defeats. Coordination among players was lacking and the team seemed not to have a clue on what to do on the pitch in those matches.
The South African trip was surrounded with lots of controversies. The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) should establish who organised the South African friendly match; whether the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) or a football agent. If SAFA organised the match, why did it fail to give visas to the players on arrival? What did the country gain after the South Africa match? What is the financial cost of the match?
SLFA President, Thomas Daddy Brima in a social media post made it categorically clear that the South Africa Match should have been cancelled due to poor preparations. “Maybe we could have called off the game when the SA federation could not offer us a visa on arrival. I believe this is more or less the reason why we lost horribly. We could not get into SA on time…”, he said
After that statement by the SLFA prezo, football fans and pundits questioned why they didn’t cancel the game when it was made clear to them that the players won’t receive visas on arrival! Other school of thought also believed the Technical team should have realised the players had no time to rest after that horrific travelling which would have warranted cancellation of the match.
Sierra Leoneans both home and abroad on social media however argue that Leone Stars humiliating defeat to DR Congo has nothing to do with tired legs, but lack of tactics from the Head Coach. The national team has become donor of points to other national sides in Africa.
There are players in that squad that are not playing regular football in their respective clubs, but they keep appearing for the national side. There are other top Sierra Leonean talents who if given the opportunity would excel greatly in the squad. SLFA should come out clean and apologize to the nation.
Coach John Edward Keister is a very humble man with knowledge of the game having worked with other senior coaches both at national and club levels in his career. Keister is paid a whooping sum of money that even some civil servants cannot earn in this country.
Before traveling to South Africa, Keister noted in a press conference organized by SLFA that the team was not going to play the friendly match to win, but to identify players. How long will it take for him to identify players, when he has served the team for a very long time?
That statement should have prompted the F.A to relieve him of his duty,because he is wasting the country’s resources. We (football fans) believe he has reached a level in football where he required further training on player tactics, positioning and winning mentality.
No country in modern day football will accept the performances and results he has been producing for the national team since he was hired as the team’s Head Coach. It is high time he is sacked and search for a replacement starts in earnest, before he continues with more embarrassing results.
A player like Kwame Quee has been present in the squad for a long time and played in all areas; right wing, left wing, central midfield, attacking midfield and right back positions. His continued inclusion is now raising eye-brows, as there are other players that are performing in their clubs way better than him. He is more of an overrated player compared to his actual performances, and it is high time he is replaced.
To the football administrative wing of the game, the desire by officials to always travel with the national team has been a concern to many. The sight of the National Sports Authority (NSA) Director and the Head of Finance in travelling football contingent has been alarming.
The Minister of Sports and other top Government officials have always been present when the national football team is traveling out of the country.
Now, the question is; do they normally retire impress after any match? Do they also retire match bonuses even when the team ends up losing matches? Why always football attracts huge number of government officials? The public needs to know because the money given to the national team for those travels is from the tax payer’s coffers.
The Team Manager (TM) of Leones Stars has been missing from traveling with the squad for several occasions. Is there something we need to know for his absence?
In order to cut down expenses, the national team should start travelling with officials that would contribute immensely to the development of the game.
The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has a fixed number of officials entitled to travel with any national side; so let us start following that protocol, to save the country’s money.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (30/09/22)
