Freetown | 16th October 2020 | Vertex Media
The Corporate Affairs Manager of SLFA, Mohamed Benson Bawoh shares his opinion on the just concluded friendlies between Sierra Leone vs Mauritania and Niger ahead of AFCON Qualifiers against Nigeria next month. Read below
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“These friendly matches were meant for frank assessment of the players at the disposal of the coach. Even though the COVID-19 restrictions did not help us to look at most of the players the coach intended to look at including Augustus Kargbo of Regina and Williams of LA Galaxy among others. Since Hassan Milla left the team, we haven’t been able to replace him with a proper left back but these friendlies have helped us to discover a proper left back in the shape of Kevin Wright.”
“Results wise it was poor and we agree but performance wise it was good particularly in the second match where we played with a home base team with the exception for Alhassan Koroma.
“Don’t forget that these boys have not played competitive football for months, through no fault of the FA but that should not stop us from playing friendly matches.
“Developing a national team is not an event but a process.”
“In the last one decade, we haven’t have coherent league system due to the continues infighting (including suspensions and set asides), and disease outbreaks.
“Now we have started putting structures in place for a better tomorrow.
“We have had over 1000 players participate in the trial process of U-17 and under a week ago, we had 95 of them assembled in makeni for camping. 25 have been dropped and at the end of this week, a further 30 will be dropped.
“Plans are on the way to introduce youth league (we already have a U15 technical team in place) Women’s league for the next league season.
“We have made arrangement for camp in Guinea and Liberia for friendly matches for U17, U20(men) and U20(men) all of whom are on active training.
“When the team return tomorrow, they will be moving to camp on Sunday.
“We know we have pitch deficiency but the good news is that we are willing to actively put in the shift to make the needful turn around but it will take time bcoz it’s not an event but a process.”
©️Mohamed Benson Bawoh
Cooperate Affairs Manager
SLFA
