Administrators of community league clubs under the Liberia Football Association are urging stakeholders at the local FA to expand programs in grassroots sports development across the country.
The clubs want the association to revamp their frameworks and operational status with major priority placed on effective monitoring and evaluation of the community league so that community-based players’ status can be regularized for promotion eventually.
In recent times; on both electronic and social media platforms, teams from different subcommittees’ leaders have engaged the press calling on the Liberia Football Association to do more as it relates to the benefits and betterment of the community league.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Prosper Football Club, Emmanuel N. Elliott explained to this paper that the leadership of the subcommittees is not effectively working for the growth of their various committees, hence the spirit of the ball game will continue to die once the Liberia Football Association does not take care.
Elliott who heads a team from upper Margibi County then launched an advocacy that the football association swiftly intervene in the matter regarding reported delay by the local sub-association leadership in addressing critical issues during the entire league season.
“We are very much disappointed in the way things work in the Liberia Football Association Community and the Third Division League and those responsible have to double up their game so that things can get better for the sake of Liberia’s football future,” Elliott disclosed.
He maintained that there are greater prospects in the grass-root leagues for Liberia to improve the game but said achievements can only be met if the governing body of football in the country takes action that straightly impact the league and its actors.
He noted, “Many things need to happen for football to reach a higher height in Liberia and key among them can be the removal of the leadership over the community league and other programs for the grass-root because they are not running the leagues in the proper directions.”
The grass-root club administrator also called on the competition and other departments of the Liberia Football Association to become more proactive in doing group pairings, fixtures and match planning at the lower level of the FA league.
In another development, the President of Ever Green Football Club Bernard Williams at the New Kru Town Sub-Committee raised issues on the reported porous state of the subcommittee.
He said that the league at the lower level had been degraded to the extent that those over the lower committees at times go to game venues at competitive fixtures without footballs.
According to Williams the leadership at many of the committees’ meetings does not see grass-root football as a major yardstick that has the propensity of taking the country’s soccer arena to global level.
“Why will match officials even go to games venue without a football and you expect the league to be a serious one? Many at times, when we go for games, footballs and other materials can’t be available,” the club President reported.
He along with other lower league club administrators are suggesting that the Liberia Football Association set up a monitoring mechanism to have things at the various subcommittees on path with the happenings in the football world.
The stakeholders said that the situation worsens when teams in a national league play games and the governing football body does not even send a single executive committee member to watch what had unfolded throughout the season.
“We need our work in developing players for the bigger leagues to be celebrated so that there will be more space to encourage the younger ones to get into the ball. It is good for all of us if the LFA will send people from the Executive Committee to at least see some of our games and take reports to the top leadership of the FA. With that, the league will become serious and things will get better,” they envisaged.
Though many stakeholders lauded the current LFA leadership for ongoing programs at the grass-root and women division, others are also interested in the sustainability and the improvement aspect of said programs.
The coaches added, “Grass-root football is important and we all know that it is the only way Liberia can get on the scale with other nations. We need to build a new breed of players and once it is done, football will get better and we will always thank the FA for the programs, but there need for monitoring.”
