Liberia's national side, the Lone Star, could withdraw from the qualifying series for the 2008 Cup of Nations.

This is a consequence of the conflict between Jamesetta Howard, the country's sports minister and the Liberian FA (LFA).

Howard, upset with Liberia's failure to qualify for the Cup of Nations finals since 2002, said playing in qualifying tournaments with no reasonable chance of success is not in the country's interest.

"Are we prepared to just participate in sport for the sake of it or do we rebuild and prepare ourselves for the international scene?" she asked.

The sports minister complained that the LFA had not forwarded their plans for the national team, even though their opening game in the 2008 qualifiers is scheduled for September.

But with the Confederation of African Football certain to impose a financial penalty and a possible ban should Liberia withdraw, LFA boss Izetta Wesley opposes any such plan.

"The fact that we are not qualifying does not mean that we should stop playing," she told BBC Sport.

"We are saying we should continue playing to encourage our youth.

"We have just selected our technical team and they are the ones to come up with a programme for selecting and training our players.