Monrovia – The president of Liberia Football Association’s first division club Muscat, Charles Massey says there is a need for amendments in the rules and regulations of the National County sports meet.
According to Massaley, there are several things the Ministry of Youth and Sports needs to put into the regulations of the nation’s biggest sporting event in order to rebrand the annual competition and he will do an official communication to the sports ministry for the betterment of football and the competition.
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He said there is a need to invest in to more young players in the county meet than older players who are not marketable out of Liberia.
Massaley who is a key football stakeholder said his recommendation to the Ministry of Youth and Sports will be that only players under 20 years should be allowed to play in the tournament, That a player should not be allowed to play for more than one county, That the National County Meets should include Female Football, that the National county meets be moved from December to July and that the Ministry/counties compensate each club for the use of their player(s).
The Muscat president said his recommendation are open to discussion and feel it’s all in the interest of football and sports development.
Massaley said the adjustment in the age range of players participating in the county is to give more young players the opportunity to play.
“We can not have such a large turnout and we don’t give young people the opportunity to play football is about the youth,”
“I believe that if we start to focus more on the younger players and give the visibility to play under such huge turnout they can be Scouted from there to Europe,” he said.
He indicated that if there are more young players playing in the county meet, coaches of the various youth national teams and even teams in the top tier club can get players from the county meet that will go on for years instead of moving from one county to another county to fine players.
“If you have 28 or 30 years old playing in the county meet, what good will it do for the country? I know everyone wants to win but the young players can make you win, we want to see Liberia taking 20 years old players to the Nations Cup,” he said.
In his words, it’s about time also that players are allowed to play for only one county and don’t move from county to county in the tournament.
He said there is the need to make a county meet a project to develop younger players so if players are kept with one county because they will have a smooth development growth than get different orientations for coaches.
“It’s more beneficiary to the country if we have young kids playing at such a level.”
He said the county me should be open to all divisions but restrict it to young age which according to him will encourage more young players to challenge in the top flight because they will not be affected by their level.
Massaley, meanwhile, wants a change of the county meet date from December to July.
He feels doing so will help save the teams cash because during December clubs pay their players to without them playing a game during such period.
Another reason for his proposal for the tournament to be played in July according to Charles the academic calendar.
The Muscat president told FrontPage Africa that for so many years clubs have suffered from the aftermath of the county meet.
He explained that counties and the Sports ministry need to compensate clubs for the use of the players in the national event.
“I think the county needs to give the clubs a fee per player because is the clubs that train the players,”
“We are not treated we’ll sometime players return from county meet with injury and is the clubs that take on that responsibility,” Charles Massaley asserted.