By S. Siapha Mulbah
The acting president of Cece United Football Academy, Mohammed Bamba, has frowned at reports emanating that top officials at the Liberia Football Association are interfering with the selection process of players at the national team level.
Making the claim, Bamba cautioned the LFA to allow the coaches hired for the Lone Star to do their jobs independently without interfering with processes that have to do with selection, scouting, and promotion, among others.
He alleged that over the years, higher-ups at different positions, from the president, to executive committee members and influential administrators, have been engaged with coaches of the national team to give call to players, particularly players believed to be their interest, and leaving said coaches with no option of independent decision making.
In a release issued by the acting president of the topflight club, he said the Lone Star being subjected to a preliminary round of qualifying before making the group-stage qualification as one of the lowest teams on the continent, speaks volumes to the downward turn in performance of the country’s team.
According to him, many of the poor outputs that citizens continue to complain about in the case of the Liberian Lone Star, are attributed to interference played in the team’s technical department by the officials of the football house, and other authorities in the government and other sectors.
“Over the years, there has been an organized system or clique that makes the selection of players to the national team. I said selection, not recommendation, because the bulk of the coaches we have had are not even familiar with our players and the character or skills each individual has to make a cut in any preferred system of play as envisioned by that coach,” Bamba asserted.
He added that the recent request of the newly appointment head coach of the Lone Star, Mario Marinica, to have clubs submitting the names of players for screening purposes at the national team level, shows a positive sign that he has prospects and good plans for the team, but the administrators around him interfering with calling different players revealed that the system is still the same.
He said, a few days ago, the same administrators and football stakeholders who have been taking Lonestar’s performance downward over the years, continued with the same attitude of making the selection for Lonestar once more.
“All football administrators were written to inform their coaches to send the names of their best-performing four players, and like us, we instructed the coach to make the selection, which he did, and we forwarded the names to the LFA as per their request.”
He added that from the list submitted by the clubs, it is known that Watanga and LISCR Football Clubs fielding six players each, shows interference to get the numbers they have, along with Paynesville FC with five players.
“Someone will say these are the top teams in the country, granted, but being a top team and having top players in all roles on the team more than other teams is far-fetched,” he said.
According to him, some administrators are of the perception that they are promoting or growing their own players by influencing their call to the national team, failing to understand that the nation will continue to face the consequences if such attitude continues.
He urged that LFA and all stakeholders to take the interest of the country as a top priority and give the coach the opportunity to make decisions that he will be called to justify if anything goes wrong with the team’s performance.
