From all indications, the authorities of county teams for the National County Sports Meet are not happy with the decision of the Ministry of Youth and Sports to have the nations’ biggest sporting festival postponed at a time where every county have prepared and spend monies to have players around game venues.
The Sports Steering Committee Chairpersons of the 15 Counties have threatened a mass protest action against the Sports Ministry if it fails to reimburse the expenses incurred by the counties before the postponement of the annual tournament.
At a news conference Tuesday, the group said the postponement was untimely and embarrassing owing to the huge expenses counties made up to the eve of the games.
Reading the statement, Bomi County Sports Steering Committee Chairman, Abdul Kanneh said counties spent thousands of United States Dollars to sign players, book hotels, buy materials and as well paid players just to be told that the tournament had been postponed hours before its kick-off.
Abdul Kanneh added that the majority of the monies spent by the counties were outsourced from credits and loans with interest hoping to have settled them after the disbursement of the preparation funds by the Sports Ministry.
The County Sports Steering Committee Chairpersons’ statement further called on Minister Zeogar Wilson to use the money received from the sponsors to settle their debt.
The statement which the Chairpersons said is backed by their respective Superintendents is also calling on the transitional team to take due cognizance and intervene quickly.
The Sports Ministry received eighty thousand US dollars from Accelor Mital as a sponsorship package, forty thousand from Orange Liberia, and over 85 sets of jerseys from APM Terminal.
The government of Liberia allocated 150,000 US dollars for the tournament, but the sports Ministry could not get the funds up to the eve of the tournament. It can be recalled that the ministry of Youth and Sports on Friday December 15, 2023 announced that the 2023/2024 edition of the National County Sports Meet had been postponed to an undisclosed date.
According to the sports minister Zoegar Wilson the event was postponed on precedence as the same case of 2018 when the country experienced a transitional democratic process following an election.
He furthered that the as per communication from the 2023 Joint Presidential Transitional Team, the soon to be inaugurated administration request to have the National County Sports Meet as a program for the new regime after the transition process.
