In the midst of heavy preparation and other activities of different counties for the kickoff of the nations most watched sporting festival, the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Youth and Sports has pronounced a new date for the start of the event.
The shocking disclosure was made over the weekend in Paynesville City where the Minister of Youth and Sports, Counselor Jeror Cole Bangalu addressed the sporting media expressing that the organizing committee of the competition is constraint to pushed the event from the earlier announced kickoff date.
Initially, the 2024/2025 county meet was schedule to kickoff December 15, 2024 across the four hosting venues. As a result of the new time table according to the sports ministry, the event will now start on January 12, 2025 with the same lineup of activities that were released earlier this year.
The delay of the event is nearly a month period with county authorities and steering committees cautioned to take note of the lineup of activities that could possibly affect their plans and preparation mechanisms that were put in place to work with the first dates.
In Minister Bangalu’s remarks, he explained that the event is currently at a stage of reviewing some innovations and new ideas along with the securing and finalization of sponsorship deals to cover the cost associated with the organization of a successful competition. He added that the organizers are still engaging sponsors and different partners to provide support for the event.
According to him, the event will or has not lost any momentum as maybe perceived due to the change of date at closer time to the first date announced by MYS.
This recent decision made by the Ministry of Youth and Sports is the second time in a row that the National County Sports Meet kickoff date will be postponed to a latter.
Usually, the county meet starts in December with the group qualifiers conducted at the different hosting venues. After the celebration of the festive season, the quarterfinal and other final stages move to the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville to climax the tournament.
On the contrary to the usual calendar of activities, the last edition and the upcoming edition had and will face some forms of delay with the current administration and corps of officials at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The last edition was postponed from last December to April of this year and now, the pending edition has been pushed from December to January.
