By Danesius Marteh
The government, through the Ministry of Youth & Sports (MYS), will hold meetings with the Liberia Football Association (LFA) at 10:00AM and Cassell Kuoh at 12:30PM at the Samuel Kanyon Doe sports complex in Paynesville on Tuesday.
According to Deputy Sports Minister Andy Quamie, the meetings are intended to understand the current electoral impasse.
Cassell said he will attend the meeting with his campaign manager Emmett Stages Glassco, who is the president of Senior Female Professionals.
The government is holding meetings at a time when Cassell has four cases against the LFA, including the unconstitutionality of the statutes at the Supreme Court and a suit at the Civil Law Court against President Mustapha Raji’s citizenship.
So the meetings, according to Andy, are neither intended to persuade Cassell not to contest nor to encourage the LFA to compromise its statutes or regulations.
So why is the government holding such a meeting?
Former Information Minister Emmanuel Bowier (RIP) repeatedly said on his program on Radio Monrovia that there’s arguably nothing that is happening in Liberia that didn’t happen in the past.
When Andy and aggrieved clubs felt oppressed during Cllr. Sombo Izetta Wesley’s regime in 2008, they went to the Temple of Justice knowing that the courts are the last hope for men on earth.
When Izetta planned a congress without the aggrieved clubs, Andy told UNMIL Radio’s Sports Extra program in August 2008 that “there will be a blood bath” if the congress is held without their participation.
Andy’s threat prompted Ellen Margrethe Loj, UNMIL Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, to write the government and Sports Minister Etmonia Tarpeh called-off the congress and wrote Fifa about the crisis situation.
It was the Zurich Accord, signed in Switzerland on 10 October 2008, by Deputy Sports Minister Marbue Richards, LFA executive committee member Garmondeh Karnga and Raji, who represented the aggrieved clubs, which led to peaceful and successful elections in March 2010.
The government have seen how Raji has been violating the rights of stakeholders with arbitrary bans, including those handed to Shaita Angels President Benita Whitney Urey and Determine Girls President Grace “Master Queen” Weah.
Why didn’t the government intervene although Grace wasn’t given due process and it has been 56 business days since Benita submitted an appeal against the five-year ban in January?
Why hasn’t the government intervened knowing that the LFA has been running a league for three seasons without ambulance services, something that led to the death of Black Man Warriors midfielder Amara Kamara on 23 January 2025, having been injured against Bea Mountain at D. Tweh field on 8 January 2025?
Is it only suddenly concerned because the LFA published a purported Fifa letter, which warns about a possible ban?
Fifa is headquartered in Zurich and Uefa is based in Nyon but Swiss laws and constitution supersede their statutes and regulations.
Caf is headquartered in Cairo but Egyptian laws and constitution supersede its statutes and regulations.
Concacaf is based in Miami, Florida but the constitution and laws of the United States of America supersede its statutes and regulations.
That’s why there was a joint raid by Swiss and American justice departments to clean Fifa of corruption charges in 2016.
These confederations are not islands or states operating in a city.
Why didn’t the government intervene when Jubilee were illegally relegated and it had to spend more than US$30,000 at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) before their rights were restored?
Will the government intervene now that the LFA has terminated the contract of beach soccer manager Clarence Lee Chea, who has announced he will seek remedial actions at the Labor Ministry of National Labor Court?
You don’t need a rocket scientist to explain two facts: Andy supports Raji’s third term and Atty. Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah doesn’t understand sports and needs her teenage son’s courage to lead MYS and drive the sporting sector.
Raji desperately needs a third term to complete unfinished business.
Cassell desperately wants to change the nosedive trend football has taken.
Andy is aware of how Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari (RIP)
persuaded Amaju Pinnick, president of the football federation, from contesting for a third term in September 2022.
He needs to remind Raji about what compatriot Pinnick did or encourage him to face a competitor.
Cassell has repeatedly said the constitution, article 21(j), restores his rights unlike the statutes which bar him.
Let’s allow the court to do its work because none of the two men will back off.
