Let Us Not Cry “Wolf” Now

About two months ago, the new President of the Liberia Football Association or LFA, Musa Bility, with the advice and consent of the FA’s executive Committee commissioned a five-man technical team to structure all of the national football teams of Liberia.

The LFA Technical Committee, chaired by a Pentecostal prelate, the Reverend Bishop John Allen Klayee, was primarily charged with the responsibility of selecting the technical teams, including coaches of the various national football teams of Liberia.

Nearly two months now, this committee has been assiduously working to ensure the achievement of the foregoing mandate.

At a news conference held at the headquarters of the Liberia Football Association at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium or ATS on Monday, June 7, the John Allen Klayee Committee, among others, released the names of the Hungarian,, Bertalan Becskie and a Liberian, Hazel Gray as Head and Deputy Coaches of the senior national team, the Lone Star.

Immediately following that announcement (also broadcast by the various radio stations), there came concerns from certain quarters of the football arena in Monrovia and its environs.

Such concerns, according to the broadcasts monitored by the New Dawn, were characterized by condemnations and other forms of negative criticisms we thought were very inimical to any effort aimed at creating a formidable senior Lone Star team.

Whatever reasons given for these concerns or criticisms, we at the New Dawn consider such as very unfair, not only to the Technical Committee, but the dream of well-meaning Liberians to see a well-rejuvenated and prepared Lone Star for the 2012 African Cup of nations and other international soccer events.

While we do agree with the concerns of these critics, we think the leadership of the LFA and its technical committee did justice to the entire process.

If we could recall, this is the first time in recent Liberian football history that such vetting mechanism has yielded fruitful results. We think this is the first major attempt by the current administration to revive football in Liberia that must be appreciated.

We need to start from somewhere, and we believe this is that beginning we need to revive the game.

We must give not only Coach Bertalan Becskie and his deputy, but other coaches vetted for the various national soccer teams the opportunities to prove themselves otherwise, and not to begin expressing apprehensions.

Other than negating the just-ended vetting process, our focus should on interferences by certain high profiled individuals that may come about during the recruitment processes for the various national teams.

We think we must all resist all attempts to inject personal interests into such recruitment processes and go for the best we have here and abroad for our national teams.

Let us not cry “wolf” now, but accept that which has already been done. Bravo to the Technical Committee, bravo to the new LFA Leadership and bravo to the Lone Star of Liberia.