By Francis Kamara
The President of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), Thomas Daddy Brima, has been showered with positive praises by FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino for his transformative leadership in modernizing female football and for strengthening the sports in Sierra Leone.
The two leaders met and discussed extensively during the FIFA Best Awards in Paris.
It has been a little over 18 months since he took up office, and football in Sierra Leone has been transformed positively – ranging from grass-root football, youth competitions, the Sierra Leone Premier League, and most importantly the Female Premier League.
In an interview with Thomas Daddy Brima, he told Owl Sports that the Female Premier League in Sierra Leone has given Sierra Leone global recognition in terms of football. He also mentioned that he received a special invitation from FIFA on this aspect adding that the prominence and global recognition of female football in the country has given him special treatment on the football stage.
The SLFA president underscored that it was an honor to be called up to witness such a magnificent occasion and he enjoyed every bit of it.
He narrated that he discussed about football in Sierra Leone with FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, and the president of the world governing body was very pleased with the way and manner the Brima Administration has managed to stabilize the football federation in Sierra Leone.
“Where there is no peace it will be difficult to get development and that is why we have been able to stabilize the federation” SLFA president said.
He asserted that he has been inspired by the leadership and positive vision of Gianni Infantino, as the FIFA president has vividly modernized the sorts worldwide – and a good football administrator like himself needs to follow suit and capture Infantino’s vision.
He added that the relevance for him to embrace leadership is to play football and female football is creating a lot of attention.
The SLFA president Thoma Daddy Brima, further affirmed that Female football has been playing in Sierra Leone – “the only difference is that female football in my tenure is well organized, structured, and modernized” he said. Infantino’s dream project is to see female football improve globally and the Sierra Leone female premier league has given the recognition that the world wants to see.
He acknowledged that the FIFA funds have been covering a lot of grounds in building the projects – from Female, youth football and the Sierra Leone Premier League.
He emphasized that the FIFA fund is provided too utilize and develop football in Sierra Leone and he is opportune to use the money in developing football in Sierra Leone.
He that noted that Sierra Leone has little or no infrastructure in all aspects of the game and he will utilize the funds in the best possible way to impact and transform Sierra Leone football and his honest effort in trying to promote football in Sierra Leone ignited the global recognition.
He concluded that there are no excuses in his administration, as he always tries to get things done, as there are no successes without challenges.
He also stated that there are lots of challenges some of which are inherited from past administration – ranging from sexual harassment, match fixing scandals, referees misconducts and so on. But they are finding ways to combat and eradicate some of these challenges as they won’t go away so easily – to know the root causes and address.
He thanked the Female Premier League board for a job well done in modernizing female football and that they deserve all the accolades – because running football is not a joke, as politics and other challenges have hindered the growth of the beautiful game.
He affirmed that the administration is investigating the sexual harassment case and they will get to the bottom of it and bring perpetrators to book. He asked people to come forward and bring tangible evidence so as to display transparency and truth.
