Rebel Activities
Disrupt Bassa Defenders Trip
-To Sierra Leone On; New Arrangement
Pending
February 18, 2003
Recent rebel activities in the Cape Mount
area have disrupted the planned trip of Bassa Defenders which was
scheduled for Sierra Leone.
According to Bassa Defenders
President, J. Boakai Russell, his team was scheduled to have left
Liberia on February 14, 2003 for Sierra Leone via road, but the recent
rebel activities in Cape Mount disrupted the trip.
He said the team could not travel to
Sierra Leone under the current security situation in the area since it
was traveling by road. He said as soon as things improve the matches
will be rescheduled to new dates.
In a related development, Mr. Russell said
his team has begun negotiating with teams in Guinea for similar trip
previously planned for Sierra Leone. He said he is hoping things
materialize for the trip to give his players the necessary exposure.
In can be recalled in an effort to provide
international exposure to its players, the authorities of Bassa
Defenders negotiated two international friendly matches in Sierra
Leone.
According to Bassa Defenders President J. Boakai
Russell, who traveled to Kenema to negotiate the arrangement, his team
was scheduled to play two matches against Kambui Eagles and Kenema All
Stars on February 14& 16, 2003 in Kenema and Kakua Rangers on February
15, 2003 in Bo.
Kambui Eagles is presently flying high in the
Sierra Leonean FA Cup, following the elimination of National Port
Authority team on a 2-2 away aggregate. With their top current form,
Bassa Defenders was expected to feature their best players.
Commenting further, Mr. Russell said was
responsible to transport his team to the Liberian side of the border,
while Kenema would have provided Bus to collect 50 player and
Officials at Sierra Leone Border on February 12, 2003.
He said the purpose of the trip was to
expose the youthful Bassa Defenders players to international football.
“We want to start exposing our players with our neighbors in Sierra
Leone and as time goes by and economy improves we will look somewhere
else,” he said at the time.
Quizzed whether they were intending beefing
up the team with additional players, Mr. Russell responded in the
negative. “We are not particular about results because we are about to
build a team to meet international standards. This is why we were
contemplating on carrying our current batch of players to give them
the necessary international exposure.”
On Whether they had prepared for the trip,
Mr. Russell said his team trained 30 days and was looking forward to
the trip, but the situation in Cape Mount disrupted things.
Bassa Defenders is one of LFA’s leading
first division teams. The team is noted for playing tough against the
big names in Liberian football.
The Bassa Defenders President is no
stranger when it comes to carrying teams to Sierra Leone. As team
manager of IE, he led the Yellow family to several victories against
Port Authority, East End Lions in the mid 90s.
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