By Alhaji H Koroma
The favorite for the 2025 Sierra Leone Football Association presidency, Babadi Kamara, has put plans in place for extensive football development when he assumes the hot seat in the upcoming election.
Babadie Kamara, aka, BBD, the owner of the six thousand seater Southern Arena stadium in Bo, is the man behind the success of Bo Rangers’ recent achievements, winning three consecutive leagues and three consecutive representations in the African Champions League, and, topping it all with their recent FA Cup success.
BBD has been giving support to football at all levels, and in all corners of this country, he has served as the Sierra Leone national football Team Manager who led the Leone Stars to the AFCON in Cameroon upon their return to the African Showpiece after being unable to participate in the event for over two decades.
The philanthropist and well-experienced football administrator has this to say about his main objective after taking over the leadership of the football association.
“My work speaks for itself. I love this game, and I am coming to take this game to a higher level where every Sierra Leonean will be in a position to be proud of football locally and internationally.”
” Grassroots are one of the main priorities to see how to develop young talents and coaches. I have the reputation of putting structures in place, which are already visible with Bo Rangers and the Southern Arena.”
“Football infrastructure is going to be another priority. I will find ways to fix up the appropriate infrastructure in place to see football play in all the corners in our country,” he concluded.
About his plans to uphold the constitution of the Federation.
“The first thing a president is judged by is how you uphold the constitution guiding the game, I will make sure things work as they are supposed to run according to the constitution, the work of the association is teamwork, every department needs to function around the federation, all committees responsible for the smooth running of the game will be formed through Congress and the EXCO to enhance independence in decision making.”
“Football is governed by laws, and those things that will bring disrepute in the game will be a thing of the past during my reign as president.”
“With teamwork, I believe Sierra Leone football will be the envy of all in the sub-region,” he concluded.
The other challenge we are having is the lack of proper structures for our male and female elite leagues. His plans to improve on that.
“We have a very competitive league in the country, the male premier league has been very competitive, and I believe that we have things to improve on. The league calendar needs to be fixed. We have to go elsewhere to bring cooperate houses and investors to join us and run the league.”
“I know the clubs are faced with a lot of financial challenges, with the cooperation from the stakeholders, the SLFA staff, and the EXCO members, we will come together as a team to bring ideas for a consistent and well-balanced league, more training, and seminars will be conducted for referees and officials to uphold the value and rules of the game” he concluded.
Speaking about the female league, he was straightforward to state that whatever structures provided for the male league would be rolled out to the female league to make it more attractive for everyone to follow.
We rounded up the session by asking about the plans for the various national teams and his thoughts on their poor performances on the international stage.
The hot favorite started by saying, “I already have the experience from working with the national team, and I will bring all onboard to see how we improve the performances of our various national teams.
“I believe I have said this all, putting good structure in the local league, with well-trained coaches, administrators, match officials, and consistency we will reach our goal.”
“I believe with a consistent league, we will be able to select the best players to play in the various national teams, and, as for the senior national team, we will blend the best-performing home based players with those playing out of the country, I believe our technical teams will be in the best position to do justice to our people by selecting the best to represent us and bring results for our country,” he ended.
The eagerly awaited Elective Congress is set to take place in 2025, where Sierra Leoneans are gearing up to see Babadie Kamara elected president of the federation by delegates.
