Liberia: Who will save Liberia football?
By Own Correspondent with support from DO – As stakeholders (football clubs’ officials) will be going for the annual football congress in a fortnight, in the commercial town of Ganta, Nimba County, the Melvin Sogbani’s faction, called the “Aggrieved Stakeholders,” are said to be concluding their “seditious plan” to oust the Musa Bility’s leadership, but credible reports said they are brooding on a successor.
The stakeholders, according to an insider, who begged for anonymity, told this paper in Monrovia, that they are on course to depose the football house. The aggrieved stakeholders are said to vow to impeach the leadership in Nimba County’s congress or during the next congress.
They are accusing Mr. Bility of financial and administrative malpractices and for supporting the Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam against incumbent FIFA president Joseph Sepp Blatter.
The stakeholders are also accusing the LFA’s leadership of receiving Hammam’s soft money in the tone of US$40,000, to the detriment of Liberian football.
They told our reporter that football development has failed to take-off under the leadership of Mr. Bility terming him as a “show-man” without the passion to properly develop the game owing to his so-called “Football Commercialization Scheme.”
“The LFA needs systemic overhaul in order to raise the standard of the game because the Bility’s leadership has miserably failed to provide a steady direction for football development. The practical impact of the financial support from CELLCOM is not realistic and visible,” the insider rumbled.
Information gathered has it that the stakeholders are contemplating on considering one of the four names, if they vote Bility’s leadership out of power. The names include, Robert Sirleaf, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s biological son and a patron to Barrack Young Controller (BYC); Madam Julia Duncan Cassell, Superintendent of Grand Bassa County and president of Mighty Barrolle Sports Association; Dr. Richard V. Tolbert, former Chairman of the National Investment Commission (NIC) and president of Liberia’s oldest football club, IE; and Momolu V.O. Sirleaf, former President of the Sports Writers Association of Liberia (SWAL), Director of External Aid at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Secretary General of IE.
The LFA’s revised statute qualifies Robert Sirleaf to contest the presidency of the LFA. The statute says any passionate football fan can head the LFA. Unlike the past, only officials (from Secretary General to President) met the criteria.
“We are virtually out of all major competitions, our national league remains substandard and our football administrators have demonstrated ineptitude for the development of Liberian football and I think it’s time that Musa and his team take a shameful bow from the LFA,” the insider indicated.
However, when contacted a crony of the LFA boss, who also begged for anonymity, he told our reporter that Bility’s impeachment is “very impeachment,” owing to the promotion and development of the game and rapport, he (Bility) has with the stakeholders. He frowned on stakeholders who are accusing Bility of endorsing Bin Hammam, saying that his prerogative. “Bility’s vision is two terms, from 2010 to 2018,” he stated.
Research conducted by this paper states that at least 50 persons are needed in congress to vote for, to unseat the Musa Bility’s leadership.
