By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
When members of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) struck an agreement in Port Loko last year to increase the number of teams in the Premier League from 14 to 18, the news was greeted with a huge applause.
This was partly so because every one of the 47 delegates felt that they had won something in the room. The addition of teams to the Sierra Leone Premier League had been a sticky issue for quite a while, so you would understand the celebrations back then.
But it is difficult to know how many of those delegates thoroughly considered the possible conundrum that could come with the expansion they had just agreed to, especially for future Premier League Boards (PLB), football associations and government.
Financial independence
This is the second season since the revival of the league. Last year government invested Le 3.5 billion to restart it. This year the PLB wants Le8 billion. They might not get that much, but there are strong indications that they might get more than the Le 3.5 billion that was given last season.
But whiles government continues to cushion teams with these funds, there should be real effort led by regional and national FAs to make sure teams move to being financially sustainable.
Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai is the Chairman of Old Edwardians. He advocated for the addition of four teams to the league during the Port Loko congress last December, two of those spots based on affirmative action.
Even though he supported expansion, he warned that if football bodies didn’t act to push clubs towards financial sustainability, that could come back and bite the league itself.
“The FA, WAFA and regional FA’s should put a condition about teams that are going to promote. If you don’t have teams that are financially self-sustainable, you are going to work into trouble. You are going to have teams that will come to the Premier League, play four, five or ten games and will be unable to meet the huge financial requirement to participate in a competition. Then you have a dysfunctional league,” he told Politico.
Abdulai also owns a team that has already qualified for the Premier League playoff- Luawa Football Club.
The cost of running clubs are becoming extremely expensive.
Chairman of East End Lions Football Club, Anthony Navo Jnr, told Politico ahead of the new season that they were aiming to raise Le 5 billion for the team’s expenditure.
“This season we will double our budget and raise more money. We have budgeted to raise Le 5 billion for the club. We have already raised 30% of this amount,” Navo said following a press conference at the team’s headquarters in Freetown.
To meet the increased demand for finances, Premier League clubs have already doubled ticket prices this season for some games.
The laws surrounding financial sustainability of clubs in Sierra Leone is very opaque. A lot of clubs especially in lower divisions are supported by mega-one man-donors.
The risk associated with such model of financing is enormous.
Ibrahim Kamara, Head of Media and Marketing at the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), told Politico that they didn’t have a program that focuses on pushing clubs towards financial sustainability. However, he said the FA does pitch in with financial support.
Kamara said: “It is not the direct responsibility of the Sierra Leone Football Association to take care of any club. It is your responsibility as a club to take care of yourself. However, the football federation may come to provide boost, be it material or financial support.”
Kamara said FA President Isha Johansen had already secured funding to support clubs with the payment of coaches and took care of some logistical needs.
“In terms of figure, we don’t know yet. But FIFA has approved the support and we just need to do follow up to make sure it is implemented. So that is what we are doing,” he said.
But will support like these be there for the long run? If not, what happens when they dry up?
Despite his push for clubs to be sustainable, Abdulai believes it is in the best interest of government to keep supporting football in the country considering that it overlaps with its agenda - Human Capital Development.
“I understand that government shouldn’t be the main bread basket here, but someone in government should be able to push them and say look, provide us Le10 billion every year because it is part of the Human Capital Development the government is talking about,” he said.
The looming infrastructure crisis
Financial sustainability will not be the only thing that will threaten the league in seasons to come. Another problem the league should brace up for will be the struggle for adequate playing pitches.
Currently, there are 14 teams in the league, at least ten of them play every one of their home games at the Siaka Steven stadium. Regional teams like Bo Rangers, Kamboi Eagles and Diamond Stars host their home games on their own grounds out of the capital, Freetown.
A total of six teams are expected to come to the league. Two of them will be promoting to replace those who will relegate (assuming there is an agreement for teams to relegate this season).
Two of the four who will come from the North and North-West regions of the country will likely host their games in Port Loko and Makeni. One of the other two spots have been given to the Western Area, the other has been given to the Southern region.
No matter how the mathematics play out, already too many games are played at the Siaka Steven Stadium.
Watching more than 100 games in one venue for the season has the tendency to kill the excitement of some fixtures in the coming seasons. Different venues give different level of excitement, atmosphere and even intensity.
For a while now everyone has known that the way forward is to develop grounds and build some mini stadiums. But the FA should take the lead on this.
FIFA support funds for member countries have ranged from US$ 750,000 to US$ 1 million annually, depending on different indicators.
Politico asked whether Sierra Leone is receiving any fund from FIFA to develop playing grounds.
Kamara said: “Specifically to develop playing grounds, No. But Yes, funding is coming to the federation for football development. I cannot say exactly offhand in terms of the specific figure that comes for that. But every year the football federation receives thousands of US dollars which is generally used for the development of the game.”
Abdulai criticized the FA on this front. He said they could have done more if they had invested just one fifth of the money every year over the last six years in developing football playing grounds across the country.
But in defense of the FA’s effort, Kamara said: “The development of the pitches is one aspect of football development. That is why the executive committee of SLFA is trying to put things in place. Going into next season, we want to make sure all the existing pitches are developed; those that need to be graded will be graded. We are also working to make sure all the district headquarters towns have artificial pitches.”
But are these plans coming six years too late?
Like the FA, the government has similar plans. Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Nyelenkeh, told Politico late last year that they are identifying places for the construction of mini stadiums.
“So, 2020 we have projects that we will start to implement. Projects like recreational facilities and mini stadiums…” he said.
The FA and the government’s plans don’t have a timeline. It could take three months or three years.
So how will the league cope till then? It is a complex situation that future Premier League Boards will have to sort out.
What happens now?
It is important to note that these problems have been caused by structural deficiencies. And they are sure to surface anyway, whether the league is expanded or not.
There is an election coming up in April and in the lead up to that, these are issues that football administrators need to have a serious conversation about - without blocks or factions. This is because as much as there is an appetite for greater “inclusivity” in the premier league, everyone must seek to answer these questions;
Are we quite ready for an 18-team league next season?
Are we not rushing into this new arrangement too soon?
Where is the necessary infrastructure - organizational and concrete?
We cannot afford to skip debate on these issues. The stakes are too high.
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