By S. Siapha Mulbah
As the most-talked about player celebration event known as the ‘LFA Award Ceremony’ approaches, football stakeholders are beginning to raise concerns on the process with recommendations for new strategies in the program.
The last edition of the annual event was won by Sidike Kromah of Invincible Eleven with conflicting reports after the ceremony that the process was marred by fraud and other missteps that undermined its credibility.
While the nomination process is approximately three months away, followers and supporter of the game have begun calling on the Liberia Football Association awards committee to institute new steps that will revamp the process to avoid a recurrence of what happened last year.
Key among football stakeholders that saw problem with the 2023 edition of the event is Professor Sekou Konneh, the 1st Vice president of the local FA and board Chair of the 1st Division outfit, Cece United Football Club.
The soccer administrator calls on the Liberia Football Association annual awards committee to re-strategize the entire process to ensure that the system will not contain those errors that were experienced.
Konneh emphasized that a major error to last season’s awards was the release of results and said the result were known by the public even before the event, stating that the awards committee should work with caution.
He said Cole Bangalu, who currently heading the awards committee and his team, has the responsibility to re-strategize and work mainly on the nomination and voting process amongst other things ahead of the 2022-23 awards.
The LFA first Vice president admitted that the immediate past edition was marred by flaws and recommended the committee prioritizes with discretion the criteria used to nominate and assess nominees.
The professor averred that an award winner should be a perfect example or role model to other players and should be able to attract scouts.
The professor maintained that credibility is a level of maturity in the sporting arena and players should not limit their capabilities or performances just to win a car.
He stated that as important as the car is, the players must not focus on the car but rather look at the bigger picture which is getting scouted by agents.
During the ceremony which is held annually by the football administration of Liberia, over 20 awards are presented to both players, clubs and team administrators for their performances demonstrated during the season under review.
The most prestigious individual award presented is the Category of Most Valuable Player (MVP) in both male and female competitions. The MVP of the LFA Awards walks away with a car every edition.
Far before professor Konneh made the remarks, fans in the corridor of football stadiums nearing the end of the 2022/23 league season continuously castigated Invincible Eleven headman for collecting the award when his team could not win a single title.
Some recommended that the LFA awards of said nature should be presented to a member of the top three team at the end of the season, a recommendation that was reportedly taken into consideration by the committee.
