Rodney Michael seize from engaging with the Sierra Leone Football Association
By Musa S. Kamara
The interim Chairman for Mighty Blackpool FC Rodney Michael confirmed on Radio Democracy 98.1 Sports Update on Sunday, October 8th, 2023 that he has seized working with Sierra Leone Football Association in any form or shape.
Rodney stated that he informed the FA about his decision in a letter dated Friday 6th Oct, 2023 where he notified the FA about his resignation from the Statue Review Committee and informed them about his lack of interest in their activities.
“I made myself unavailable from all appointments and Committees at the FA because of the way the SLFA President and Exco members treated the technical team’s appointment with disrespect for everyone involved”, Rodney asserts.
According to him, he made this decision after his disappointment with the FA in appointing him as Leone Stars’ team manager after cajoling him for almost three months to accept the position and he had already been congratulated by some members of the FA.
He alleged that he was denied the position on the basis of politics and financial height which he revealed in a tweet days ago. Probing him on the source of this allegation, he said he didn’t receive any written or formal communication on this but got it from a reliable source within.
On the appointment of the technical team, Rodney said it was the responsibility of the FA to make such an appointment, but he believed that they handled the appointment with a lack of respect for the parties involved.
“Consulting Mohamed Kallon to Coach Leone Stars, while John Keister is still in office, is disrespectful to him considering his role in developing the national team and qualifying Leone Stars to Nations Cup after 25 years”.
“On the other hand, the FA shouldn’t have raised the hope of Mohamed Kallon and disappointed him disrespectfully at the end of the day with flimsy excuses of a CAF ban and ethical issues around his person which he believed is not a sufficient reason for him not get appointed”.
“Begging people, cajoling people to accept position then you dump them like waste in a deceitful and in a disrespectful manner is where the FA got this appointment wrong,” he emphasized.
He added that the FA has put Amidu Karim in a very funny position with his former boss John Keister and his former club’s owner Mohamed Kallon. “Amidu Karim is a victim of circumstance”.
Rodney said if he had succeeded in managing Leone Stars he should have cut down the waste of tax payer’s money on the team by reducing the size of the delegation for the national team.
“Big delegations have been one of the distractions affecting Leone Stars. Ten to fifteen people hanging around the team’s hotel doing nothing official but only womanizing and drinking, and it’s not healthy for the team’s success”.
According to him, the government is wasting unnecessary funds on Leone Stars’ oversize delegation that doesn’t have the aim of making the team successful.
