By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has announced that the National Division One Playoffs have been temporally suspended.
The decision which was announced last week comes as a devastating blow to teams that have been gearing up for months to take part in the competition.
In a press release by the FA on Wednesday, it states: “The cancellation is because some individuals who took the SLFA and its officials to court and sought for injunction on the playoffs have refused to withdraw the matter from court even when it has been amicable resolved by the football family at the Ordinary Congress held in Port Loko on Saturday, December 7.”
Last year, a decision by the FA to extend the league to 16 teams and give the new two spots just to the North and the North-West regions of the country was challenged by four members of the FA.
They sued the FA and the high court ruled on an injunction immediately, halting the final phase of playoffs in both regions.
During the Port Loko congress in December, all delegates unanimously agreed to extend the league to 18 teams. Two of those spots were given to the North and North-West regions of the country by affirmative action, whiles the remaining two spots will be fought for by the East, South and Western regions.
That agreement in Port Loko meant that in principle those who took the FA to court will now withdraw their case from court.
But that has not been the case.
One of the plaintiffs, Augustine Kambo, told Politico that since they returned from congress in December “we haven’t received a single correspondence from the FA regarding the case.”
Kambo said they were willing for the playoffs to take place. However, they raised concerns that hadn’t been raised before now. He said they were worried that a playoff now would disrupt the entire structure of the Division One system.
“We support the playoff. The playoff is right, but the timing is wrong,” he said.
Kambo added: “Currently Division One is not playing, if we play now and promote for next season, what happens to the other division one teams? So this is something we want to talk about and we are willing to seat with the FA and discuss it.”
A total of 26 teams had already been seeded in different zones to start the playoffs last week, before the announcement by the FA.
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