Lone
Star Gets Egyptian Coach
Wednesday, 8th February 2006
By D. Webster Cassell
…Liberia withdraws from Female U-20 Tourney
The Ministry of Youth and Sports on
yesterday received a foreign Coach/Technical Director from the
Egyptian Government for the Senior and Junior football teams of
Liberia, the Lone Star.
Receiving the coach from the Egyptian Embassy on last
afternoon, the Acting Minister of Youth and Sports, Jeremiah
Witherspoon acknowledged and praised the good relationship that is
subsisting between the People’s Republic of Egypt and Liberia.Minister
Witherspoon thanked the Egyptian Ambassador for the interest his
country has continued to manifest in the development of sports program
and activities in Liberia.
The coach, Mr. Shawki Hussein Mahmud has a wealth of
experience in coaching. He began his career as a football player in
the early sixties and after attending several coaching academies; Mr.
Mahmud has managed many teams in several countries. The Egyptian
Government, through bilateral arrangements between the two countries,
is financing his tenure in Liberia.
While in Liberia, Coach Mahmud will be responsible to
coach all national football teams, design training programs and build
the capacity of coaches, among others. For his part, the Egyptian
Ambassador, His Excellency Omar Abdel Aziz Elsheimy thanked the Acting
MYS Minister for the visit and expressed his country’s desire to work
with the Government and People of Liberia in all fields of technical
cooperation especially in the areas of medicine and agriculture.
The Ambassador further promised to ensure that experts in
these areas are brought into the country to provide technical
assistance and build the capacity of Liberians. In a separate
development, Acting Minister Witherspoon has instructed the Liberia
Football Association to immediately withdraw from the CAF U-20 female
tournament, which was to begin in Monrovia on Sunday, February 12,
2006 with Mali.
In a letter to the LFA, Minister Witherspoon complained that
his Ministry had long ago raised its objection to the formation and
registration of a U-20 female national team to participate in the
tournament without seeking the endorsement of the Ministry of Youth
and Sports, noting further that one cannot expect the Government of
Liberia, in its infant stage, to undertake such huge expenses.
Speaking to newsmen at his Newport Street Office, Hon.
Witherspoon pointed out that his Ministry could not justify committing
the in-coming Government to underwrite such expenses when there was
more pressing needs to fund basic social services for the people of
Liberia. Despite this decision of the Ministry, Mr. Witherspoon
observed that the home of Minister-Designate, Hon. Jamesetta Howard
Wolokollie has been inundated by visits from the LFA in an attempt to
woe her into endorsing the participation in the tournament.
Minister Wolokolie, in her wisdom, has refused to do
so.In this light, Minister Witherspoon said, he would not be bullied
through any machination or intrigues and trickery to overturn this
stance of Government, the release concluded. |
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