By Alhaji Komba
Acting General Secretary of the Sierra Leone Football Association, SLFA, has told Politico that all Premier League clubs in the country should be “licensed before participating in any Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) competitions.”
According to Abdurrahman Swaray an enactment has already taken place in the just concluded three-day African football organisational meeting in Cairo, where he represented Sierra Leone on the invitation of FIFA.
The newly enacted policy by CAF will take effect when the 2012 champions and runners-up of the different local leagues in African countries would have qualified for the 2013 Orange African Champions League and the CAF Confederations Cup respectively.
The scribe noted that clubs that would qualify for the 2013 Orange African Champions League and the CAF Confederations Cup should be equipped with a hosting venue, strong financial status and a well-organised administrative structure that would qualify them to be licensed.
“As most clubs in the country lack the said requirements, we are going to work collectively as an FA to make sure they attain the said requirements,” Swaray promised, adding that CAF was going to set-up an evaluating panel that would work to ensure that clubs in Africa meet the demand.
Swaray also said they were calling on clubs participating in the ongoing Sierra Leone Premier League to start preparing themselves against been disqualified even after they would have qualified as champions or runners-up to participate in either the Orange African Champions League or CAF Confederations Cup.
“The FA is ready to complement the effort of any club that may want to embark on trying to meet the requirement,” Swaray disclosed.
The word license, he said, was about running into the modernised system of having a football club that would meet international standards. All other secretaries of countries affiliated with CAF and FIFA were also represented in the Egyptian capital Cairo to discuss the said policy.
