By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The new Chairman of the Premier League Board, Allieu Vandy Koroma, has told Politico over the weekend that they need Le8 billion to run the 2019/2020 Premier League season.
Koroma said more than half of this money will go to clubs as seed money.
“Over half of the Le8 billion is for subsidy because we really want to build the clubs,” he said.
However, the PLB has not put a price on what they will give teams. A press release from the FA over the weekend hinted that it would be significantly higher than what was given last year.
But Koroma is cautious because the PLB is still sourcing funds.
“With the seed money thing, we have refused to put a price tag on it. This is so because we are still in the process of sourcing funds for the league. We are talking with corporate houses and the government to sponsor the league,” he said.
Last season each of the 14 teams received Le50million as seed money to start the league.
The new budget is a huge increase from the Le3.5 billion government spent on the league last season. Koroma said this year’s budget is bigger because they want to make the league better.
“A budget is just a budget, it is ambitious, but it is just a budget. Most people won’t understand when they hear this figure. But like they say, the devil is in the detail; why we need this amount of money.”
Korma further explained that they wanted to invest in innovations that will make the league more attractive. He said they are planning to have a website that will host the website of all 14 clubs and integrate their information.
None of the 14 clubs have an up to date website.
Other innovations the PLB is contemplating include having a Man of the Match award for every game, and establishing a short code through which fans would be constantly updated with results.
“We are in advance talks with a telecom [operator] to have this. By the time we are done, whichever part you are, if you want to get results for Bo Rangers, it will just pop up on your phone,” he said, explaining the rationale for the short code project.
On Friday, the Sierra Leone Football Association announced December 4th as the date for the start of the new season.
Talks are ongoing with the Ministry of Sports regarding funding for the league. With the date announced, the PLB has just two weeks to raise the funds it needs to start of the league.
Copyright © 2019 Politico Online
