By Danesius Marteh,
New Liberia head coach Mohammed Erradi will earn US$98,450 per annum or US$8,204.17 per month in addition to other benefits and amenities.
This is contained in the 2026 budget of the Liberia Football Association (LFA), which was passed during the elective congress on 15 May.
Erradi signed a three-year contract with no mandates at a ceremony attended by Sports Minister Cornelia Kruah, LFA President Mustapha Ishola Raji and secretary-general Emmett Crayton and mobilization committee chairman Luther Tarpeh on 18 May.
He will also be given a vehicle, accommodation and monthly internet package, feeding and laundry as part of the contract.
But Erradi, who holds a Uefa Pro License, has never ever worked with a national team at any level throughout his career.
His coaching experience includes managing KACM Marrakech of Morocco, APR FC of Rwanda, Ghana’s Bechem United and youth and reserve teams of clubs in Belgium.
Erradi also served as technical director at Ittihad Tanger and assistant manager at Raja Casablanca in Morocco
He is a Johnny Just-Come (JJC) with international football.
It doesn’t make sporting and financial sense to pay him at least US$3,000 more than his predecessors, who are qualified like him but with far more experience.
German coach Antoine Hey, who managed Liberia from 2008-2009, will be the only person to earn more than Erradi in postwar Liberia.
Hey was paid around US$9,000 per month to take Liberia to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
But Hey, with a Uefa Pro License, coached Lesotho (2004-2006) and Gambia (2006-2007) before coming to Liberia.
Hungarian coach Bertalan Bicskei (RIP), who was paid like Hey and had a Uefa Pro License, also managed Hungary in 1989 and from 1998-2001 before coming to Liberia in 2010.
Roberto Landi, with a Uefa Pro License and paid in the region with Hey, coached Georgia’s under-21 (1998-2000), Lithuania’s under-21 (2001) and Qatar’s under-21 (2005-2006) before he was appointed in 2011.
Englishman Peter Butler and Romania’s Mario Marinica, with Uefa Pro Licenses, are far more experienced than Erradi but were paid less US$6,000 per month.
Butler coached Botswana from 2014-2017, taking it up Fifa world ranking from 130 to 91, before coming to Liberia in August 2019.
Mario managed Malawi from 2021-2023 qualifying The Flames for the 2021 Afcon finals in Cameroon.
So how did we agree to pay an average or mediocre coach that hefty pay check?
Then Sports Minister Jeror Cole Bangalu, responding to a row over unpaid salaries for Mario and technical staff, questioned the LFA for signing a contract that obligates the government without the consent of the ministers of finance and justice.
So are Finance & Development Planning Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan and Justice Minister Natu Oswald Tweh aware and or signed the contract?
If someone somewhere is not benefiting than those who drafted, agreed, and signed this contract caused financial loss to Liberia in a rescue government with several competing priorities.
