Club President Takes On LFA

                          Mr. Wilmot F. Smith, Jr.

 
By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.

The President of Georgian FC, Wilmot F. Smith, Jr. believes that the Liberia Football Association (LFA) has more work to do in improving the standard of the game.

He began by calling on the LFA to create motivation for the league by organizing weekly awards for clubs, players and technicians to be recognized for their respective performances.

Mr. Smith stated that such task rests on the shoulders of the Marketing Committee of the LFA. He recommends that this body of the LFA should generate the resources needed for the teams, players and coaches to be honored.

"The current LFA National League lacks motivation. There must be a cause for a fight. The league is not tension packed because of the mere certificate and US$25.00 for each award winner at the end of the season," the Georgian FC boss argued.

"The LFA should design a marketing strategy to have all of these things into place. For example, the LFA should seek sponsorship."

He also advocated for clubs to have increment in the amount of money given by the LFA in order to augment their strength since there is not much money raised from gate intakes.

According to Mr. Smith, the LFA needs to take the game to the people so as to discourage the negative impact the European games via satellites are having on the local games.

"The LFA needs to create an outreach program in order to restore the attention of the people to the local game. It should establish cells by having stakeholders meetings wherein communities can put together clubs to represent their areas. In this case, there could be total involvement as the community dwellers would turn out en masse whenever teams from their areas are playing," he continued.

In the absence of momentum for the local league, Mr. Smith argued that the home and away euphoria is not being realized. As a result, he wants the clubs return to the old system of playing at a single stadium while the idea is being organized properly.

"There is a need for the right mechanism to be put into place, otherwise the rest will be a formality. For example, fans had to forego the European games to watch the County Meet. This can work in the LFA league when each county owns a team. Indeed, the LFA should redesign her strategy," the President of Georgian FC stressed.

He, at the same time, called on the legislators to increase the amount of money allocated to football (currently US$20,000 proposed in the 2009-2010 National Budget). "Developing the game is one area that they (legislators) should prioritize," Mr. Smith added.