Another Bomb
Thrown At LFA
By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.
May
18, 2004 The imminent elimination of the
current leadership of the Liberia Football Association (LFA) is
becoming inevitable with soccer officials now becoming impatience
about the state of the game in the country.
The latest to join the numerous voices advocating
for the dissolution of the present LFA leadership of Izetta Wesley
are two club officials.
Messrs. Malike Dukuly and Cole Bangalu want the entire
leadership fo the LFA to be removed and replaced with a brand new
one.
They made the declaration recently when they lectured
at the April edition of the Herbert Grigsby Forum organized and held
at the headquarters of the Sports Writers Association of Liberia (SWAL).
Mr. Dukuly, as vice president of the Invincible Eleven (IE)
Sports Association, said, "it saddens my heart as a young man and a
promoter of the game of football, that despite many contributions
and efforts made by individuals and groups, both locally and
internationally, not much has been achieved."
He cited corruption, greed, incompetence and lack of
experience as the reasons behind Liberia's backwardness as compared
to other African states in all areas including sports.
Mr. Dukuly said, as a result of poor planning by the
LFA, the National League has become one of the least, such that it
is hardly heard of. He, notwithstanding, suggested that there be a
prompt overhauling of the LFA.
The IE Vice President called for the creation of a data
base for Liberians playing at home and abroad. He wants the next
Congress of the LFA repeal the highly-criticized "two-year clause"
because, as he stated, there may be people without the requisite
qualifications but have the administrative and technical knowledge
to make Liberian soccer better.
He also called for the establishment of a well-coordinated
decentralization program and the inclusion of budgetary allotment
for sports in the national budget.
Likewise Dukuly, Mr. Cole Bangalu, president of the division
two club Devereux and Managing Director of the National Housing
Authority (NHA), advocated for the trashing out of the two-year
clause in order to make room for people that would make impact. "A
clearing process of the entire LFA must take place."
He believes a special committee is necessary to be set up to
remove the clause.
Mr. Bangalu stressed the need for the LFA to be self-reliance
because "it has come a long way."
He pointed out that the absence of infrastructure poses a
potential impediment to the growth of soccer in Liberia. "We need to
follow the examples of neighboring countries where there are
football programs," said the Devereux boss.
He vowed, "we will make sure that statutes that are
impediments to soccer are removed."
According to him, a good number of persons should represent the
various clubs on the LFA executive committee instead of the current
two representatives for each category of clubs. "There are lot of
changes that need to be made, but we are waiting for the right
time."
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