By Danesius Marteh
The media have been overwhelmed with reports, fed to it by the Liberia Football Association (LFA), that it received two formal warnings from Fifa regarding the legal petitions filed by FC Fassell President Cassell Anthony Kuoh to halt the LFA elections, which were scheduled on 18 April, in Harper, Maryland County.
Okay FM’s Clarence Jackson flagged the issue of a possible ban on his Morning Rush program while Daily Observer newspaper ran a front page headline “Liberian football risks Fifa ban” in red on 23 March.
The LFA claimed that Fifa, in a communication on 22 March, warned that court interference in football governance constitutes “undue third-party influence,” which may lead to the immediate suspension of Liberia from international football.
The second letter on 2 April warned that Liberia will be banned on 9 April for undue third party interference.
Firstly, I don’t believe the authenticity of the letters for two reasons and have sent an inquiry to Fifa media department.
Per history and tradition, such a communication threatening a ban would have come from Fifa secretary-general Mattias Grafstrom in Zurich, Switzerland and not from chief member associations officer Elkhan Mammadov in Paris, France.
This was the case when Fifa secretary-general Fatma Samoura wrote LFA secretary-general Emmanuel Deah (RIP) on 4 May 2018 to communicate the result of an assessment mission that took place in Monrovia from 24-25 May 2018 in relation to the 14 April 2018 elections, which didn’t produce a president and was marred by a Civil Law Court injunction issued by Judge Peter Gbeneweleh as was prayed for by candidate George Solo.
It was Fatma, who wrote to LFA secretary-general Isaac Montgomery on 20 April 2022 to announce a media accreditation process for Liberian sports journalists for the 2022 World Cup Qatar.
It was Fatma, who repeatedly communicated with Ethiopia Football Federation (EFF) regarding their troubled electoral process, including an April 2, 2018 to postpone the elections following an assessment mission in Addis Ababa on 12 March 2018.
And it has been/will be Fatma, her predecessors or successor(s), who would communicate such a message and not a junior officer in Paris, whose function is to oversee Fifa Forward Programs.
Secondly, LFA President Mustapha Ishola Raji has a documented history of fraud and this purported letter could just be one.
Raji claimed that Solomon Mudege, Fifa head of development programs in Africa, wrote the executive committee on 8 November 2021 about a planned meeting meant to either suspend or expel him after he had blackmailed Vice Presidents Sekou Konneh (Prof.) and Wilmot F. Smith to Fifa but it turned out to be a malicious and black lie.
On the day of the meeting at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium, Raji locked himself up nearly the whole day and was confronted by Konneh about his conspicuous absence.
This is the same Raji, who was banned for two years in 1998 for forging the registration documents of players for LISCR FC (then Barcelona FC) in a third division play-off during the regime of President Edwin Melvin Snowe, now senator of Bomi County.
This is the same Raji, who forged his academic credentials during the 2018 LFA elections and lied that he had graduated from Corinthian Colleges Incorporated Everest College in the United States of America but it turned out to be a shameful disgrace.
So I have reasonable cause to believe that the purported letter didn’t come from Fifa.
And don’t be convinced that Liberia wasn’t ban because the court lifted the permanent injunction.
Kuoh has lawsuits against Raji’s citizenship at the Civil Law Court and an “in re petition” at the Supreme Court.
Raji also sued Montgomery at the Civil Law Court for defamation of character in December 2023, a suit he is yet to perfect.
Former LFA executive committee member Rochelle Woodson has a petition for declaratory judgment before Judge J. Kennedy Peabody at the Civil Law Court against World Girls FC.
Fifa should ban Raji and Woodson for taking football matters to court before banning Liberia and Kuoh.
Raji is an enabler, a manipulator, a narcissist and a desperado, who will do anything and everything for a third term.
But who wants to so easily give-up a job that pays US$130,000 per annum for four years?
