When Elephants engage in mortal combat it is the ...
They say ‘when elephant’s fight it is the grass that suffers’ –(African Proverb) and in many cases in the sports community when there is infighting between members of the leadership, it is the athletes who suffer the most and they usually pay a heavy price for it.
Sierra Leone a small West African country which has been in the headlines for the better part of a year due to the Ebola Virus epidemic is also now experiencing one of the worst cases of infighting within its sports community in its history, because of some serious disagreements between the President of its Football Association; Madam Isha Johansen and its Football stakeholders (General Membership).
On December 20th 2014 Sierra Leone’s football stakeholders called for an extraordinary congress to decide on the way forward with the Association and its leadership; a meeting which was not recognized neither approved by Madam Johansen’s Executive Committee. The meeting however was convened via a teleconference during which the membership decided to remove the President of the Association citing articles within the statutes of the body’s governing documents that gave them the right to act thus.
The vote saw the appointment of an Interim Executive, headed by Mr. Unisa ‘Awoko’ Sesay who has been leading the Association since the December putsch.
Since the removal of Madam Isha Johansen from her position by the vote of the football family membership of Sierra Leone, there has been a standoff between the new authorities along with the National Sports Council, the Sports Ministry and FIFA the world’s governing body of the sports which rejected the ouster of Madam Johansen citing statutes within its charter that prohibits such unilateral
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Leone stars in photo