Monrovia – FrontPageAfrica has gathered that the budget for the Liberian national football team FIFA sanctioned international friendly matches with Benin, Burundi, and Sierra Leone organized by the Liberia Football Association ( LFA) in Turkey has not been approved by the government of Liberia.
The Lone Star is expected to play Benin on March 24, and take on Sierra Leone on March 27 and Conclude with a clash against Burundi on March 29.
The matches are being arranged to get the senior national team active during the international break which runs from March 24-31.
The team, according to sources, should be travelling hopefully on today, Monday, March 21 to Antalya, but there are reports that the budget submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) for the trip has been significantly sliced as was the case during the qualifies matches in Morocco last year.
The Ministry of Finance has trimmed the national team one-week budget to Turkey with no guarantee whatsoever that the balance will be covered.
When this happens, the product is a failure because there is an inevitable lack of motivation amongst the players.
This means if the team is to travel, there will be no travel allowances which doesn’t give a positive signal considering that players are yet to receive their bonuses for the last match won in November 2021 against Central Africa Republic at the just ended World Cup Qualifiers in Morocco.
The Lone Star team made the trip to honour their double-headed World Cup ties with Nigeria and CAR in Morocco last November by crediting flight tickets from the airline, a debt that hasn’t been settled, our source told FPA.
“This makes it difficult if not impossible for the airline to issue new tickets when old debt from November 2021 has rolled as far as March 2022” said our source who asked not to disclose his name.
“Also, we have been informed that going back as far as September 2021 Liberia Women’s football Senior team budget payment has not been released, too.
“But with all the difficulties the LFA is still hopeful of playing the three matches.
“These are not recipes of football especially in these times where more than 51% of the Liberia population is involved with sports with over three quarter of that percentage playing football.”
On Sunday, Liberia female U-17 girls concluded their two leg ties with neighbours Guinea somehow successfully after travelling over fifteen hours on Coaster Buses from Monrovia to Conakry because their budget for both training and preparation wasn’t supported as has been with their senior counterparts since September.
The LFA has said the best way to build a strong national team is to invest in youth football which seems to be tough for the FA due to the government’s lack of support for the youth teams.
Coach Ansu Keita who was appointed head coach of the Men’s U-15 team received praises over the last two years since he left his family in Canada to take over the Liberia Male U-15 national team, Coach Ansu Keita.
There have been lots of praises on the lips of most Liberians following his handiwork on our youthful setup since his takeover, but they themselves like the senior National team are also challenged.
A deal was secured to participate in a U-17 competition in Austria but as yet, the possibility of the trip hangs by a thread because of the same old age problem of no money syndrome.
These kids are deadly serious and their performance over the past two years is an epitome of why their smaller dreams which will amount to a bigger Liberia dream should be supported.
Amidst all, there’s still hope for football which is followed by over millions of Liberians.
One may wonder why the national team will be struggling for support under a footballing president George Weah. President Weah during his playing days benefited from five thousand United States dollars as appearance fee but as president and chief patron of Sports players are even finding it difficult to receive one thousand United States dollars as appearance fee and same for a home wi