Few days ago the Sierra Leone Football Association presented head coaches and assistant coaches for the various national teams for both male and female.
The presentation was done at the Siaka Steven Stadium Atlantic Hall, Brokfields in Freetown. In his statement for the selected coaches, Sports Minister Ibrahim Nyelenkeh told the coaches that the government is going to use the tax payers’ money to pay them.
In return, he said they need to give their best performance for the people. A reason, he said the coaches are going to sign performance contract with the government.
He though said he has no doubt that they will perform as they know the players they are going to work with. He went on to tell them that as a coach they need to have four qualities which are discipline, integrity, confidence and courage.
Among the four, he said discipline is paramount in developing any sport as a coach must be discipline before he could discipline his players.
Thirdly, they should have confidence in the players they have and must have courage to stand firm be it good day or bad day. He ended up advising them not to do their selections on sentiment but on best performance. Despite the above conditions, he said let them be rest assured that they will never interfere with their work.
He pointed out the senior national male team head coach John Kiester whom he said should go all out to qualify the team for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nation in Cameroun.
He said the country have the required players to qualify. But in his interview with BBC, Kiester stated that he is planning to build up a new team as the present team has ageing players.
He went on that if the new team fails to qualify, they will be strong enough to qualify for the next Africa Nations Cup.
His statement on building new team was also backed by Chris Kamara, the General Secretary of the Sierra Leone Football Association.
So the question now on the lips of many fans now base on what the coach has said is will the government still sack Kiester if the team fails to qualify for the 2022 Nations Cup?.
