By Lamin Idriss Conteh (Cazorla)
In a press release issued on Monday, the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has warned recently declared Association Presidential aspirant, Rodney Michael to desist from all forms of false, malicious and defamatory statements directed at SLFA, members of its executive, CAF and FIFA.
Speaking to Politico, the Public Relations Officer for SLFA, Ibrahim Kamara, said that some of Michael’s comments on social media have not been encouraging. He said: “One of his comments was that the FA President is using SLFA monies to influence delegates.The other comment was against the world football governing body, FIFA, where he said FIFA is keeping a female president in power through unethical and illegal way.”
Kamara claimed that some of these comments were uploaded on Michael’s Twitter account and that they have screenshot all his comments for reference. He stated that there would come a time when they as executive would publish all of these comments for the public to see. He claimed that Michael has deleted all of these comments from his twitter account.
He said that some of these comments are not good and they have gone against FIFA, CAF and SLAF Code of Ethics. He asserted that football is governed by rules and regulations and anyone who goes against them will face the penalty. He stressed that the issue of defaming football leading actors in Sierra Leone has always been in existing. He further said that what they had expected from Michael was to come out to the public and tell them what he had done in the game of football, some of his plans he has in mind, and the changes he plans to bring to the football administration.
He furthercited Article 10 of the SLFA Code of Ethics which he categorically stated that Michael went against. He said that Michael is not a member of SLFA and that he is not a member of any organisation that has a direct affiliation to SLFA. So as SLFA executive, this is the first step they have taken by issuing out a press release to warm him to desist from his actions. He noted that this was not the first time Michael has been doing this. So if he doesn’t desist from his actions, they know the step to take, he said.
He later said that if Michael thinks SLFA has done anything wrong to him instead of going to social media and post his grievances, there is a channel that’s legally constituted and recognised by FIFA and CAF to report his grievance, and not on Mainstream or Social Media.
Speaking to Politico, Rodney Michael said that from the press release issued by SLFA, there are no evidences stating defamatory comments. Responding to the allegations, Michael said that he didn’t delete anything from his Twitter account. He said that it has taken some months he went out of Twitter and that they are just fabricating stories against him. He further said he is not even a regular user of Facebook not to talk of Twitter and added that he sometimes visit Facebook when he wants to publish articles or stories. So if SLFA are saying he has deleted some comments made by him, then he doubted it. He said they are just doing this to discourage him.
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