The Liberia Football Association (LFA) has donated 30 Puma footballs to all male football clubs in the National First and Second divisions across the country, to accordingly assist stakeholders in the promotion and development of the game.
The presentation of the game material, according to the football association, is a courtesy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who donated 6,000 match balls to the country, to enable the Liberian FA cooperate with teams in the national league.
Speaking at the session, the 2nd Vice President of the LFA, Adolphus Dolo, extended appreciation to the Saudi Kingdom for the kind gesture.
‘’We want to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the donation of 6,000 Puma footballs, and we remain very grateful to stakeholders for the numerous sacrifices you have made to develop football,’’ Dolo said.
Dolo was speaking to stakeholders in an LFA Connect Work Session, on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, before the distribution of the footballs, and he also used the opportunity to take aim at those who criticized Lone Star, following their 3-1 loss to Ghana in Tuesday’s friendly.
The 2nd Vice President was characteristically soft, but sounded upset while responding to some football fans who made a competitive analysis with Liberia and other National Teams across Africa.
‘’I want to thank the Lone Star, even though we lost yesterday, and I pray for their safe arrival.
‘’We played Ghana, a country whose 2023/24 Sports budget is 23M, and what is our budget? When we make these competitive analyses, we should ask ourselves,’’ Dolo lamented.
‘’We go out there blaming the FA for everything, but we don’t realize that if we don’t buy books and feed our kids at home, we shouldn’t expect them to do remarkably well, it’s not possible. All the LFA does is to ensure that the beautiful game is played, but if the clubs don’t do well, you blame the LFA,’’ Dolo bemoaned.
Meanwhile, the 2nd Vice President reacted sharply to comments believed to be from a Ghanaian football commentator, during the match, describing Lone Star as a 2nd Division team in Ghana.
‘’We should not be discouraged that our team went to Ghana and performed miserably, but I must be on record for this. The commentator who tried to ridicule Liberia yesterday, we find his remark very offensive and we’ll make a proper representation,” he asserted.
‘’The game of football says we should respect our opponents. Whatever our performance was yesterday, the adjective used to describe our team was very disrespectful,’’ Dolo concluded.
