By Ibrahim Karim Bangura (Tanko)
Email ibangura071@gmail.com
On Tuesday July 4, 2023 FIFA through the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has handed over Ten Thousand, Eight Hundred and Twenty (10,820) football’s items to the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) for onward distribution to Schools nationwide. The official exhibition of the items took place at Education minister’s office at New England Ville in Freetown.
In his submissions, the School Programme Facilities Officer at SLFA, Samuel Davies, said the initiative of giving footballs to schools in Sierra Leone started in November last year when FIFA invited member states to a seminar in Ivory Coast. At that time the need to go back to grassroots football was top on the agenda especially for WAFU Zone A member countries of which Sierra Leone was among.
He said the donated footballs are specifically designed by Adidas for use in Africa and the balls are size four meant for children between ages four to fourteen.
“We must go back to grassroots football, FIFA wants to use football as a subject and a career path that will be studied in school as the economic benefits of football is huge, citing the Senegalese superstar Sadio Mane as an example. Besides, we stand to benefit from grants for organizing workshops and training for Physical Health Education (PHE) teachers and organizing competitions among school going pupils. The project will start with a pilot phase and after the pilot phase, FIFA expects line ministries and agency to write a letter afterwards. The Ministry can apply for grants up to USD$50,000 to promote football in schools,” he said.
The SLFA Technical Director, Ibrahim Bah, said for Sierra Leone to boost grassroots football, the country needs to have a functional grassroots structure in place and that is what the country has been lacking ever since.
Mr. Bah recaps FIFA’s commitment to promoting grassroots youth football, noting that FIFA is willing to finance grassroots football for the next four years. He said SLFA has already initiated a new programme that will see the training of over a thousand grassroots coaches across the nation.