Memeh Y. Sheriff, the president of Liberia Football Association (LFA) Logan Town Subcommittee third division side, Mande United Football Club, is calling on the LFA Grievance Committee to revisit its decision made against his team, Mande United FC, and United Star FC.
Sheriff is making the call to the LFA at the time the playoff of Montserrado Sub association is ongoing after his team was denied from participating in the ongoing LFA third division knockout competition by the LFA Grievance Committee for reported match irregularities.
Sheriff highlighted that his team won their last league game 8-0 in the LFA Logan Town Sub-Committee league on March 31, 2024 against United Star FC, which qualified them for the LFA third division playoff competition, but they were denied by officials of the LFA.
He said “Mande United won our last game in the league 8-0 against one of our opponents, United Star FC, which qualified us as runners-up for that Sub-Committee league, and also for the LFA’s ongoing third division playoff competition, but we have been denied our right to be one of the two teams from that Sub-Committee that are now participating in the LFA playoff, but they rather gave our second position to ANSSA FC, who finished third in the table.”
Sheriff voiced that his side’s 8-0 victory against United Star FC on March 31, 2024, ended peacefully without them being informed by the LFA Logan Town Sub-Committee about any protest filed against them by United Star FC, but they were only informed by the LFA Logan Town Sub-Committee on May 2, 2024 that their 8-0 win against United Star is a replay game and that the game would be replayed on May 4, 2024, which he as president refused to honor because he was never told the reason of the replay.
Sheriff vowed to take his case to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) if LFA failed to provide the truth in his case.
On the other hand, the Secretary General of LFA Logan Town Sub-Committee acknowledged that the game between Mande United FC and United Star FC was rescheduled for replay after ANSSA FC, who finished third in the Logan Town Sub-Committee league table, filed in a complaint for match fixing in Mande United FC’s 8-0 win against United Star FC, and the complaint was taken to the LFA Grievance Committee and the LFA Grievance Committee found out the truth of ANSSA FC’s complaint and the game was rescheduled for May 4, 2024, but Mande United FC refused to honor the game.
The Inquirer Newspaper, in early April of this year, reported that grassroots football in the township of Logan Town was faced with an alleged situation of malpractices, as many fans and supporters of different teams in the third division league complained of match fixing, referencing a fixture between four teams in sub-committee programs.
During that time, spectators at the Port Harcourt field in the township expressed to the paper that the Sunday, March 30, 2024 Matchday 14 fixture between Mande United and United Stars, was apparently tampered with.
The fans then were seen expressing their concerns on the match officiation in different ways, and calling for investigation in what many of them considered as match fixing in the league.
A stakeholder within the Sub-committee also alleged that the Sub-committee was favoring particular teams that are to go to the Montserrado Sub-association playoffs, which is the reason many youth teams in the community want to stay away from participating in the program which has interest in developing young talents.
Before the round 14 fixture of the league, ANSSA and Mande United were tied on 19 points with an equal goal difference, which made the Secretary General of the Logan Town Sub-association, Lester Teah, to communicate with the teams on March 15, 2024 that the next round of matches, specifically Mande United versus United Stars Football Clubs, and the African New Stars Sports Academy versus Future Young Controllers, were going to be played at the same time and date simultaneously to avoid all speculations of malpractices.
However, the matches were not played as planned, after it was observed that the subcommittee allowed one of the two games to play, and suspended the other for more than one week, which created more room for the speculations that the match was fixed in favor of Mande United.
After the report, the Liberia Football Association took charge of the situation and investigated, to arrive at the conclusion that the matches between ANSSA and Future Young Controllers, along with the match between Mande United and United Star Football club be replayed.
Mande United have confirmed through their president that they dishonored the decision, on grounds that it was not enough to have them losing their initial 8-0 win.
