LFA expels three national team players





The Liberia football association has expelled three senior players of the national team of Liberia for constant violation of the national team player code of conduct.

The LFA was compelled to not just drop the professional players, as recommended by national team coach Kaetu Smith, but to expel Captain Anthony Laffor (South Africa), Dioh Williams (Sweden) and Francis Grandpa Doe (Malaysia) from the national team with immediate effect.

The three players have been mandated to immediately take advantage of their return tickets and return to their clubs or the tickets will be cancelled in 24 hours.
The affected players were part of the Sunday June 10, 2012 zero all tie at home to Angola in the 2014 World cup qualifier in Monrovia.

LFA says it has become imperative to rid the three players from the team based on their constant uncontrollable behaviors including late arrival for practice sessions and constant boycott of camp among others, all in violation of sections 4-23 of the National team player code of conduct.

Speaking to the Communications Department of the LFA, Coach Smith said the affected players (and three others) were earlier fined US$1,000 each for violating the code of conduct following the teams’ arrival from Dakar, Senegal on June 4, 2012.

The players, Dioh and Francis, had arrived on camp 12 midnight while Laffor stayed away from the camp three days before retuning. They argued why the LFA will attempt to restrict them and deny them of their freedom when it could not restrict former national team players like James Debbah and George Weah.

The players’ constant misconduct came to an uncompromising state when their misconduct contributed to the team missing its Delta flight to Ghana en route to Namibia on Monday June 11, 2012. As a result, the LFA has lost close to US$20,000 in extra charges for the team’s overnight stay in Accra, Ghana.

The team now leaves Wednesday June 13 and stay in Ghana for about 27 hours before leaving for Namibia for the African Nations cup match on Saturday June 16.

According to Coach Smith, George Gebro will replace Laffor as captain of the team.
Two of the expelled players, Dioh and Fancis, including Dulee Johnson, were expelled in September 2010 by the late national team coach Bertalan Bicskie on similar grounds just a day to Liberia’s opening match in the 2012 African Nations cup qualifier at home to Zimbabwe on September 5, 2010. Constant appeal from all sectors of society brought them back to the team after several months