By Muctar Koroma
The Deputy Director at the National Sports Authority (NSA), Dr. Abdulrahman Swarray has confirmed to journalists at the Africell and sport Writers Association partnership launched that the National Sports Authority and the Sierra Leone Football Association have in collaboration prepared and presented a seventy billion Leones(70,000,000,000) budget for the upcoming 2021 Africa cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon.
According to the NSA’s deputy director, everybody now talks about Leone Stars going to the Africa Cup of Nations and they have projected a seventy Billion Leones (70,000,000,000)budget which will serve the whole tournament.
Dr. Swarray’s comments have been received with mixed reactions from the public, considering the economic challenges the country is currently facing.
The budget submitted by the two sports bodies has been view as one that is unrealistic and planned by the Sierra Leone football Association (SLFA) and National Sports Authority (NSA) to involve in wastage of state resources in the upcoming tournament.
According to the competition manual, The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) is in charge of accommodation of players and the technical team throughout the tournament. The 24 Nations that qualified to the AFCON stand to benefit financial assistance from CAF in the tune of over six hundred thousand dollars.
Members of the public have called on the Football Association and the Sport Authority to clearly explain how they reached the 70 billion Leones budget projection.
Last month, the Anti-Corruption Commission(ACC) launched an investigation intothe activities of the National Sports Authority about money collected for Sierra Leone’s final AFCON qualifying match against Benin in Guinea. The Executive Director of the National Sports Authority and the president of the Sierra Leone Football Association have all faced the anti-graft commission to answer questions.
