By Abdulai Fasineh Dumbuya
The Premier League Board (PLB) Chairman of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), Victor Lewis has revealed that the Winner of the 2023-2024 edition of the Leone Rock Premier League would bag 500 million Old Leones.
He was explaining in a media interview on the 7th November, 2023 regarding the activities of the board as well as assuring the public that the trophy and the medals are all in place.
He said since his appointment by SLFA as the PLB chairman, he has received a total sum of 1.5 billion old Leones, and shared 90% of that sum to the clubs to prepare themselves for the league, although he admitted that that they are still scouting for funds elsewhere to keep the league on the best footing.
“In order to run a successful league, it requires an average of 55 to 60 percent budget. So we have to go out there and look for people to support the league,” he said.
Chairman Lewis noted that in as much as they anticipated high support from institutions such as Union Trust Bank, Gento Group of Companies and Sierra Leone Brewery, he said more fund was needed to kick-off the league. He said the decision to change the name of the league came shortly after their encounter with Leone Rock which agreed to sponsor the league but with the demand that the company’s name should bear the league title.
“We were looking for funds to kick-off the league, and we wrote to many corporate institutions, but only Leone Rock were quick and ready to respond to us,” he said.
In order to show their readiness for this year’s campaign, he said they have now given a sum total of 105 million Leones to the eighteen clubs.
“This is the first time in the football calendar for the league to end in May due to our preparedness to start the league early as we have always been starting late which normally affect teams that would qualify for the African Champions League with late registration,” he said.
In his response to security crisis in the previous years, the PLB Chairman said for a very long time security issues were handled at club level, not until this year that the board has taken over security from clubs to ensure that everybody is safe.
In his part, the SLFA Referees Manager, Franklin Marrah said that they have conducted several workshops and trainings for the referees to assert their physical and technical strength at regional levels so they would identify qualified referees for the tournament. He confirmed that this year’s tournament would constitute 72 referees, 8 of whom are female.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (08/11/23)
