“We want the best for Leone Stars” Obi Metzger Jr.

 A Sierra Leone international who plays his club football with Finnish Premier League side FC HAKA VALKEAKOSKI, Obi Metzger has told Politico that if dropping Coach Christian Cole would solve all the hassle in the team, then they all will be happy as “we just want the best for the team”.

Metzger who plays as a supporting striker is confident of getting a good result in the first leg of second round of the preliminary matches of the 29^th edition of the CAF Cup of Nations in South Africa 2013 against São Tomé e Príncipe at the end of February.

When asked what he thought the problem was in the camp, Metzger said that “it is all about money, so if they can take care of that part things will be completely different, as sometimes to even reimburse players is a problem, even after official invitations”.

The Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) Abdul Rahman Swarray, said the Freetown delegation will depart on Friday 24^th February. “… the Coaching staff will join us in Nigeria, and the professional players will travel directly to São Tomé, where they will be received by the deputy Director of Sports Alphan Coker, who leaves today” he said.

The host sailed through the preliminary round 1 after defeating Lesotho by 1-0 on aggregate. The match will be played at the Estadio Nacional 12 de Julho. São Tomé e Príncipe is 51 and 168 in CAF and FIFA rankings respectively.

For the first time since 1990, all the qualifying matches will be played on a knockout basis without any group action because of the short time between the 2012 finals and the 2013 competition. CAF is switching the hosting of the Nations Cup from every even year to every odd year and have to sandwich the 2013 qualifiers into a period of just six months. There were two ties played in the first round of the preliminaries.
The 14 winners of the second round ties will be joined by 16 finalists from the 2012 African Nations Cup finals – Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Gabon, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia and Zambia. They will go into a draw for a third, and last round of 15 matches. The winners of those ties, to be played over two legs will qualify for the finals in South Africa.

LEONE STARS SQUAD

1. Christian Caulker (FC Kallon)

2. Munya Kanneh (Diamond Stars)

3. Ibrahim Koroma (Sweden)

4. Ibrahim Orbreh Kargbo (Azerbaijan)

5. Umaru Zaingalay Bangura (Norway)

6. David Simbo (Sweden)

7. Sheriff Suma (Azerbaijan)

8. Mustapha Dumbuya (Crystal Palace)

9. Mohamed Medo Kamara (Freetown City FC)

10. Alfred Zagalo Sankoh (Norway)

11. Samuel Barlay (Azerbaijan)

12. Gibril Sankoh (Germany)

13. Gibrilla Woobay (Egypt)

14. Khalifa Jabbie (Norway)

15. Obi Metzger Jnr. (Finland)

16. Ibrahim Tetteh Bangura (Turkey)

17. Kei Kamara (Kansas-USA)

18. Mustapha Hadji Bangura (Cyprus)

TECHNICAL STAFF

19. Obi Metzger Snr. – Technical Director

20. Lars Olof Mattson – Coach

21. Johnny Murray –Asst. Coach

22. Lennart Anderson –Asst. Coach

23. Phillip Koh – Masseur

24. John Ansumana – Team Doctor

OFFICIAL

25. Paul Kamara -Leader of Delegation

26. J. S. Keifala – Ag. President SLFA

27. Nuru-Deen Sankoh –Parliamentary Committee on Sports

28. Abdul Rahman Swarray – Gen. Secretary SLFA

29. Abdul Robert Dumbuya – Permanent Secretary MYES

30. Alphan Coker – Deputy Director of Sports