Are we trending towards that situation in our revival of football after years of inaction and bedlam? We can at best strike a mean between work and play even if there is an accent on work. This is because we have lagged so far behind in production that we can do more to catch up with advanced nations that can afford more play.
The resumption of league play is by all means a splendid idea coming in the wake of our suspension by FIFA. And FIFA could have asked the biblical question: “Shall I do evil that good may come?” Their suspension seems to have triggered the earlier resumption of the Sierra Leone Premier League though it should have come on anyway.
For too long the appetite of the football loving public has only partially been satisfied by allegiance to foreign teams to which their stakes have been only sentimental. Now there are prospects for them to support players who they can physically interact with. Attention is going to be divided between foreign and local teams but it would appear that the greater attention for patriots will be on the local teams. The older teams like Mighty Blackpool and East End Lions have lots of financial support with which newer teams will find it difficult to measure up. This does not mean that newer teams should not join in the race. Teams like Iceland and Leicester City have caused upsets. Not only that. These days in the English Premier League so-called underdogs are becoming top dogs.
It is all very well that we all desire entertainment and fun after a hard day’s work but should our natural focus be on work rather than play at this stage of our national development? Next to some of our idle talks about politics is that of football over which so much useful time is wasted. This is because of the wrong notions of some ill-informed workers that money is stored by government to be dished out when necessary.
FIFA has not dealt rightly with Sierra Leone as with other countries that have had similar problems. It would not be unreasonable to think that Sierra Leone is in this situation because the Secretary-General of FIFA is female and she is trying to protect Isha Johansen, a woman, on gender basis. This is why women should confine themselves to female sports. It should be considered that since Isha became President of SLFA our sports have been in a tupsy-turvy situation. The fact is that if the present suspension of SLFA is not eternal it will end one day and Sierra Leone will bounce back into winning ways.
The flood of donations towards the reactivated league shows there is abundant wealth in this country that needs the right tapping to flow. When it comes to philanthropism these same generous football donors become instant misers. No national fund can be set aside for emergency medical treatment abroad because they cannot be amused by that. Extraordinary selfishness on a national scale!
Let us not put all our energies on football. All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.