A constitutional crisis is looming in the Sierra Leone Football Association as the mandate of the current executive expires on Thursday without the election of a new one.
A senior SLFA source told Politico Sports that the Executive Committee of the organisation would meet on Thursday to discuss the possibility of extending their mandate in line with recent proposals put forward by the FA’s electoral committee to hold the elective congress on August 23.
Our source says the world football governing body, FIFA, has been consulted on the issue and that their reaction will be discussed at the Committee’s meeting on Thursday.
One of the candidates for the presidency of the SLFA, Rodney Michael says the outgoing body should “invite all 35 members of the SLFA urgently to consult and decide what next to do”. He says the outgoing executive “deliberately refused” to implement the mandate of congress from the last meeting in Kabala. He says with that mandate due to expire tomorrow only the stakeholders can decide the next move.
Michael suggests that a possible way out could be for the “four regional chairmen to work with the electoral commission and organise congress no later than three weeks from now.”
Another presidential candidate Isha Johansen told Politico that Nahim Khadi’s executive could not continue in office beyond Thursday without invoking the necessary constitutional provisions. She says where no such provisions exist “an interim body should be set up” to lead the FA to election, which she says “must happen as soon as possible”. She would not be exact on who should be on any such body.
A legal expert with wide experience in football administration says the current FA “has no powers to extend its mandate”. He says the only option open to Khadi and his team is to set up “a normalisation committee” that would take football stakeholders to the elective congress without further delay.
Nahim Khadi came to office in 2004 and has now completed two terms as SLFA president.
