Many sports pundits contend that, unarguably, Liberian football has hit its golden development epoch in the last few years, not only because the President of the country, a widely acclaimed legend of the game, George M. Weah, is exhibiting enormous political will to develop the game, but also because the current leadership of the Liberia Football Association (LFA) has distinguished itself over the years by its extreme passion and innovation in sports administration. According to them, every divisional level team is feeling the adorable sensation of great leadership, zeal and creativity and sports enthusiasts are celebrating the dawn of new day in LFA history. But the tenure of the leadership has eclipsed and highly competitive elections are in the corner, with the incumbent team battling a grimly determined opponent tooth and nail. Now comes Wilmot Smith, the incumbent Vice President for Operations candidate, wooing the electorate to give him and other incumbent colleagues another chance to further develop the game. The Analyst reports.
The Vice President for Operations of the Liberia Football Association, Wilmot Smith, has been pleading with delegates at the Convention electing a new corps of officers for the Association to give the incumbent team another change to be able to further push the much-celebrated developments achieved in their first tenure.
Delegates are casting their ballots Monday, April 18, 2022 to elect a new leadership for the next four years.
“We have come to you to give us another chance so that together we can leverage and consolidate the gains we made over the period of 4 years,” Mr. Smith said Thursday, April 14, 2022 during the debate organized by the LMDI Ducor Debates held at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex.
He continued: “We went to you four years ago and made commitments to fulfill the promises we made. Four years ago, we told you of a new office, and today we are proud to say we are dedicating it soon; four years ago, we told you we will improve the cash money for the individual player prizes; and we did it. Four years ago, we promised to improve the sum money going to clubs, we did it.”
Mr. Smith also named as achievement of their first term the harmonization of the LFA statute which makes it easier to centrally govern the local FA for efficiency and effectiveness.
He said the lack of trust and confidence in the LFA by FIFA necessitated financial sanction to be placed on the local football house but with the dedicated team he worked with and the level of transparency and accountability exhibited, the sanction was removed.
“We inherited an FA that was under financial sanction, but we were able to put in place austerity measures to overcome the problem that removed the sanction and we regained the respect of FIFA and other partners,” the LFA VPO said during the debate.
He further boasted: “I want to remind you that we went to the FA for the sole purpose of redemption and we have succeeded in uplifting football, evidenced by the construction of four mini stadiums, the increment in cash prize award for the various tournaments, including the national league organized by the LFA, and individual cash prizes including cars for the Most Valuable Player (MVP), and bringing in new companies for sponsorship. We were able to work with a dedicated, committed and passionate team with long years of service in the football industry in this country and so it is not by accident that we are all proud of a robust FA today.”
Mr. Smith, who is also the Deputy Director General for Information Coordination at the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), said he has put in more than 20 years in the service for football development in the country and under his watch a lot of young Liberians were introduced to the various strata of the national team.
When asked how he would tackle corruption and promote transparency and accountability, Smith said he has already demonstrated to a greater degree in his current job at the FA to promote transparency and accountability.
He said, “This is not something we should be talking about. My input in the current leadership can speak volumes and I am proud any day, anytime to say that we did our best to remove the financial sanction placed on us by FIFA and I will make sure once returned to the position to fight corruption and continue instilling transparency and accountability in LFA.”
Answering questions about what are some of the projects he will undertake when he is re-elected, Smith said that he will improve upon decentralizing football in the country and ensure that the local chapters are functionally and get their deserved support.
He said infrastructural development that will see more stadiums being built will be top priority during his second coming.
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