By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Some members of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) have renewed their call for Isha Johansen to renew her mandate as president of the country’s football association. In a letter addressed to the world football governing body, FIFA, they lamented that the FA has not communicated the date for congress among many other things.
The letter signed by Idrissa Tarawally, the head of the group, reads: “The constitution of the SLFA states that the Ordinary Congress for election of new officials is to be held every four (4) years. The last election of the present Executive Committee was held on the 3rd August 2013, making it constitutionally imperative for another congress on 3rd August 2017 which has not taken place to date.”
Johansen and her Executive Committee have overseen football in Sierra Leone for six years now. Most of that period has been rocked by internal wrangling with its members and external wrangling with the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Some members of SLFA, who have been dubbed as ‘Stakeholders,’ have repeatedly urged the executive to go to congress. This latest action is just one of many efforts hey have taken over the last six years to force the FA to address their concerns.
“We have made our case to FIFA. FIFA know about most of these issues. FIFA 7-man committee has been to this country and they have spoken to us whiles FIFA Task Force has also done the same. We are waiting for their response,” Tarawally told Politico on Tuesday.
Politico contacted the FA to respond to the calls made in the letter.
The Head of Media and Marketing, Ibrahim Kamara said the FA has decided not to respond on the letter. But Kamara noted that one of the reasons they will not respond is because the ‘Stakeholders’ are considered as a ‘parallel body’, which is not recognized.
Tarawally described this reference by the FA as ‘unfortunate.’
SLFA has always insisted that they are going by a road map that FIFA has designed to take football to normalcy in the country. That road map involves integrity checks, the rewrite of code of ethics and a host of other actions.
“Principal among the directives of the membership of the FA is to always go by the principal directives of FIFA, CAF, SLFA at all times unreservedly. That is what the statutes say. So, if FIFA say we should go according to the road map, then you are saying something else that means you are going against the directives of FIFA, CAF and off course SLFA,” Kamara said.
The Premier League season is expected to start this month. It is not clear how this latest row will affect the commencement of the league. Tarawally said his body doesn’t want to be held responsible for the delay of the league this season.
“We don’t want to stop the league this season, that is why we are raising these issues early this time round,” he said.
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