By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Members of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) have unanimously agreed to add four more spots to the country’s top tier league. The agreement was reached at an Ordinary Congress in the Northern city of Port Loko on Saturday.
This means from next season 18 teams would play the Sierra Leone Premier League.
There were 14 teams in the Premier League until now, 9 of which are from the Western Area whiles the Southern region has one and the Eastern region has two. Wusum Stars, a team from the Northern region were part of the league until they relegated in 2012, leaving the region with no representative in the league.
A sport journalist who has reported football in the region for close to a decade, Mohamed Papa Bangura, told Politico that this decision is especially important for the young players coming through the ranks in the region.
“This will help to tap out so many young talents. Players like Musa Tombo, Alhassan and the others started their football here (Northern region). This place gave them the platform before they went to the Premier League. I am sure all the teams are excited with this news,” Bangura said.
The decision was reached after a member of the FA, Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai proposed the motion as an alternative to the 16-team proposal the FA originally presented to the congress, which only sought to give teams from the North and the North-West region the extra two spots.
Saffa suggested that members move to add four teams, giving two of the spots to the North and North-West region and the remaining two to be contested among teams from the South, East and Western Area.
The adoption of this resolution into the SLFA statutes means a case against the FA at the High Court concerning the “illegitimacy” of the FA’s decision to add two more spots to the league is likely to die.
Few months ago, four members of the SLFA filed a lawsuit against the FA following their decision to include just the North and North-West region in a playoff for the two spots.
Two of these litigants declined to comment on the future of their case following this latest decision by the general membership of the FA. The third member, Augustine Kambo, told Politico: “I will have to reflect on the matter.”
An SLFA Executive Committee member who preferred anonymity told Politico on the sidelines of the meeting: “their case is effectively dead. Congress, the highest body has ruled.”
The presiding judge, Magistrate Komba Kamanda had put an injunction on the playoff, which was set to go for its final round.
Director of Competitions at SLFA, Sorie Ibrahim Sesay, told Politico that they would act immediately by setting up a proper structure for the playoff.
“The playoffs will restart immediately. We will go back and develop a structure. Hence congress has approved, we will act on it in the next 30 days,” Sesay said.
Ten teams in two groups of five had already qualified for the final round of the playoff in the Northern region. Five of them are from Kambia, Port Loko and Karene, whiles the other five are from Bombali, Koinadugu, Falaba and Tonkolili.
The Southern region and the Western Area played their respective Division One leagues last season. An arrangement for playoff for their teams might be easier. It might prove difficult though for the Eastern region considering the fact that they didn’t play Division One league last season.
Last season no team relegated from the Sierra Leone Premier League which was restarting for the first time in four and half years. This season two out of the 14 teams are expected to relegate. So in principle, six new teams from Division One leagues across the country could end up being promoted to the top tier league.
Copyright © 2019 Politico Online
