By Politico staff writer
Politico can authoritatively reveal that the Sierra Leone Football Association has withdrawn the sum of Le 683, 250, 000 from the Government of Sierra Leone FA Cup account at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.
This was a special account authorized by the then Director of Sports, Dr. Kenneth Brima to disburse the sum of Le 720 million approved by the government of President Julius Maada Bio for the aborted FA Cup competition in 2019.
Using counter cheques, the FA Finance Officer, Ibrahim Bah made two withdrawals on Monday 10 December 2021. He first withdrew Le 286, 500,000 indicating the amount was to cover accommodation and COVID-19 expenses. On the same day he withdrew Le 396, 750,000. There was no indication what this second withdrawal was for. As at today the balance in that special account known as the Government of Sierra Leone FA Cup Account stands at Le 35, 728, 000 after bank charges had been deducted.
In 2019, the sum of Le 720, 000,000 was approved for the SLFA at a time when the country had been suspended by football world governing body, FIFA, because of alleged “political interference”. This was after the Anti-Corruption Commission had indicted former FA president Isha Johansen and General Secretary Chris Kamara and set them aside from the running of the association.
The SLFA then under the leadership of Brima Mazolla Kamara appealed to President Bio to fund the pending FA Cup and provide the running cost of the organization during the suspension. The government approved Le 720, 000, 000 for the FA Cup and administrative cost of the SLFA for four months by which time it thought the problem with FIFA would have been resolved.
The suspended SLFA president rejected the money saying the government was trying to interfere with the running of the organization. The money was then lodged in a special account at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank which was requested by Dr. Brima who is now the Executive Director of the National Sports Authority (NSA).
On 12th November, the Ministry of Finance issued a statement that the government had ‘disbursed Le 12, 028, 509, 101 to the National Sports Authority for two (2) sets of five (5) international friendly matches’. Three matches were played in Morocco and Leone Stars were due to play two friendly matches in Turkey between the 12th and 17th November but they ended up playing and losing a single match against AfCON debutants Comoros for which no match bonuses were paid because the team lost. Neither appearance fees nor match bonuses were paid for the second friendly because it was canceled.
As at the time the money was withdrawn, the national team was playing friendly matches against local teams across the country.
The withdrawal of monies from the Government of Sierra Leone FA Cup account comes at a time when the SLFA has been restricted in its spending by FIFA following an audit.
Investigations continue
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