By Lamin Sesay
The Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) may ban the Male Football National Team, Leone Stars if the Government of President Julius Maada Bio renegades from meeting its financial upkeep of the team to enable it play its remaining qualifying matches against Chad and Zambia.
Sierra Leone’s national men’s football team, the Leones Stars, faces the risk of missing crucial qualifiers against Chad and Zambia due to financial difficulties, the Nightwatch has been reliably informed.
Reports reaching the news medium suggest that the team is currently struggling to secure the necessary funds from the Ministry of Finance to necessitate its participation in these vital matches.
Sources from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Sierra Leone reveal that financial supports to the Leones Stars has been disbursed by these two agencies of government in piecemeal, often only after matches have been played. Ironically, the Government of Sierra Leone had only provided funding for only one of the three back-to-back games against Chad and Zambia in the first legs of the qualifiers.
Meanwhile, inasmuch as the President of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) claims to have sponsored the last match by covering air tickets and hotel accommodations, the lack of comprehensive financial support remains a pressing issue.
Both the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the Ministry of Sports have declined to comment on the situation, while the situation of the Leone Stars fulfilling their crucial CAF matches obligations remain dire and quite uncertain. Be it as it may, there is clear indication that the administration of President Maada Bio is bent on blatantly neglecting the financial needs of the national team. Football fans across the country are jittery over this seemingly high possibility of their darling Leone Stars not meeting their remaining CAF fixtures.
Should this apparently lackluster move by the Government of President Julius Maada Bio not to provide the necessary funds to necessitate the Leones Stars’ honoring of their remaining fixtures, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) could impose a ban on Sierra Leone for a minimum of four years, which by all indications, will further jeopardize and put into disrepute the future of the game in the country, and this, if it happens, will impact negatively on the country’s current improved CAF standing as well as on the motivation of young and upcoming Sierra Leoneans who are wishing to make football a career.