EAST END LIONS AND THE SOUTHERN ARENA SHAME
There are many people on social media right now calling for the SLFA to take drastic action against players, officials and some fans of East End Lions Football Club for their conduct on what we now call a day of madness and shame at Southern Arena in Bo City.
Two weeks or so ago when the arena opened for business, EE Lions was among other teams invited from across the country to play in a charity gala. The guys from Freetown slaughtered their host in their own abattoir and took home the prize. It was a peaceful affair. One week later EE Lions returned to the arena for a league encounter with Bo Rangers. EE Lions lost by the same margin and then they unleashed their anger on the facility. After initial social media denials and counter accusations, videos emerged on social media and the great EE Lions were forced to apologize.
1. We saw the reserve goalkeeper of EE Lions, a man not involved in the match up to that point, actually walking on to the pitch, dragging injured Musa Tombo out of the playing area because he thought the man was trying to kill time. Isn’t it the job of the referee to attend to such matters? There are flood lights at Southern Arena anyway so there was no risk of the match being abandoned because of bad light.
2. We have seen Arsene Wenger smash his water bottle on the floor in his technical area on the field in frustration and getting punished for that but we can’t really explain what we saw in the dressing room area where EE Lions goalkeeper struck the door so hard that he damaged the lock. EE Lions players also turned their dressing room into a bathroom.
3. In the stands we saw a damaged chair. The allegation is that an angry fan of EE Lions damaged it. We didn’t see that in any video but we understand why that accusation is being made. Fans of victorious Bo Ranger cannot possibly destroy their own chair.
Let’ forget about Southern Arena being a new and beautiful facility, we cannot allow this to go unpunished no matter how groveling the apology is. We are spending millions of US dollars renovating Siaka Steven Stadium today partly because of how people have handled that place. Let the chips fall where they may.
THE COTTON TREE GOES DOWN INCENTRAL FREETOWN
The skyline in central Freetown has changed. Maybe forever because the cotton tree that has been standing there for more two hundred years was cut down in a Wednesday night rainstorm that also caused havoc in other parts of Freetown – cutting down trees and destroying power lines. It was a night of horror and we are at the beginning of the rainy season. The way things are happening on the weather front, we can’t even begin to imagine what July and August would look like. This country experiences a lot of rain in those two months.
A lot of people will miss the cotton tree for different reason:
1. There are those who like to think about the history behind the tree. It was under this tree that those freed slaves who were brought over here to settle in what we now know as Freetown, managed to get a little rest before they were taken to other areas of their new home.
2. Many beggars gather in the shade of this cotton tree as they struggle to collect money from drivers and pedestrians using that busing area of central Freetown.
3. The cotton tree area is also used to locate advertising boards of all kinds because thousands of people pass through that area on a daily basis.
There are many other residents of this city who are not so keen about having that cotton tree in that location. Here’s why
1. Vultures and bats flock to that tree and their droppings cause a lot of mess in the center of the city.
2. Hundreds of beggars find their way to that place and harass people for money because the cotton tree provides shade for them.
3. Believe it or not, there are Sierra Leoneans who genuinely believe that there are evil people using that cotton tree for all kinds of rituals. They believe that explains why the country is stagnating.
People can believe what they want to believe but the cotton tree is down. Let’s now think of another way of remembering our colonial past in particular.
ANOTHER AFRICA LIBERATION DAY: WHERE ARE WE NOW?
May 25 is Africa Liberation Day. In OAU days the leaders of our continent identified this day as the day to commemorate the struggle of the African people to free themselves from the shackles of colonialism and imperialism. Bob Marley would later call on people to “emancipate yourselves from mental slavery”. There are no more physical colonies in Africa today but have we really liberated this continent?
The whole of the continent was supposed to be open to the African people to travel, live and trade with no barriers. That was to have been the first step towards the formal integration of the whole continent into a UNITED STATES of AFRICA – a dream of the late Col. Gadaffi. These days it’s difficult to see how that ideal would be achieved but let’s say miracles can happen.
Having said that let’s just pay attention to the following:
1. South Africa – This is a country that the whole of Africa helped liberate from 100 years of a cruel apartheid system that made the black African people sub-humans in their own country. Today they conduct a yearly campaign against BLACK African migrants in that country. They loot their properties, kill them and force their so-called Ma-kwere Kwere to flee. Meanwhile white folks from other continents are free to live and continue to exploit the country. We can’t really explain that.
2. Tunisia – Under heavy political pressure at home the dictatorial president of that country woke up one morning and told the world that there was a conspiracy against Tunisia because BLACK Africans were being brought into his country in large numbers to obscure their demographic balance. Next minute the people of that country turned on BLACK AFRICANS. The rest, they say, is history but Tunisia will never be the same again.
3. There are still many visa regimes that restrict the movement of the African people to other parts of their continent and much of the continent’s trade is dominated by China and the European Union. So are we really a liberated people? Our countries are in debt and our elections are not credible until some international agency outside our continent says so. What’s really going on?
THE GLAZERS PUSSYFOOTING AROUND WITH MAN UTD
At this point we have to feel sorry for the fans of one of the greatest football clubs of our time – Manchester United. Since their iconic manager Sir Alex Fergusson left, they club has struggled to win anything big or to even hold their ground against what we know as small clubs in the Premiership. Their new Dutch manager has made some gains but Manchester United is looking like a pale shadow of its former self.
To make things even more difficult, the American owners of the clubs are busy treating the club and its millions of fans around the world with disrespect. More than six months ago the GLAZERS put the club up for sale. After more than THREE bid rounds, only two people are interested – a rich British guy and a Qatari Sheik, the latter has put all the money the Glazers asked for, SIX BILLION US DOLLARS plus more but the Glazers have suddenly gone quiet while the media enjoys a field day with speculative stories about where the club is going from here.
The uncertainty around Manchester United is affecting the morale of the players, officials and supporters and in preparations for next season, their ambitions in the transfer market would suffer because big players would think twice before thinking about turning up at Old Trafford.
The Glazers should simply tell the world they’ve changed their minds about a whole scale or part sale of Manchester United and end the speculation. We however think that they have lost the respect of the fans and should leave. They should never allow their fans to bring those street protests to the main bowl of Old Trafford every weekend.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (31/05/23)
