The Liberia Football Association (LFA) 2023 Awards Committee has extended the nomination period for this year’s ceremony, from September 8 to September 12.
The Committee cited ‘’slowness’’ on the part of club captains and coaches, as well as journalists to pick up and return their nomination forms, as reasons for the extension.
Speaking at an emergency press conference, Elizabeth Nyanibo told journalists that the decision by the committee to extend and tweak the dates was timely and necessary, so as to have an inclusive event.
‘’We came up with a set date, September 8, 2023, to end the nomination but because of the slowness of some journalists and club captains and coaches to pick up their forms, we saw it necessary to incorporate all parties to be part of the process. The nomination will continue until Tuesday, September 12, 2023, so what that means is that the voting will now start on September 15 and will end on September 19, so all sports journalists, captains and coaches have the opportunity to pick up their forms and return same,’’ Miss Nyanibo concluded.
At the same time, the Chairperson of the Committee, Counsellor Jerror Cole Bangalu, said he’s seen complaints from some stakeholders that his Co-Chair, Benita Urey, should step down, over fear of partiality.
Cllr. Bangalu was emphatic when responding to the subject matter and said that none of his members will recuse themselves from the committee.
‘’I saw the complaints, but in my mind it doesn’t warrant any decision that will lead to the ejection of any of the committee members. That’s why we want to be candid by emphasizing that every stakeholder needs to understand the process, because from time in memorial we’ve said this process is controlled by four groups of people; the captains, the coaches, you the journalists, and then eventually when the voting starts, the public,’’ he emphasized.
According to him, he was baffled by those thin claims because of the way the system is designed; no one committee member can ever influence the voting process.
‘’It surprises me to hear that even journalists are fearing that any committee member has influence to determine who wins the award. They are not voting, they are not campaigning, they are not nominating. They have zero influence on who the winners are; you the journalists, the captains, and the coaches, are the ones that can influence the process through their votes,” Bangalu stressed.
Chairman Bangalu also said that the hard copies of nomination and voting forms have always been available in the last 5 years, for further claims.
‘’The hard copies are always available for journalists or any other person to verify results announced by the committee. It happened 2 years ago with Watanga. They were not convinced and they requested the hard copies and all were unearthed to them to dispel their doubts, Chairman Bangalu concluded.
