Sports Officials Receive Lashes - Concerning Lone Star Camp in Germany

Fans and supporters of the Liberia Senior National Soccer Team, Lone Stars are calling on the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Liberia Football Association (LFA) to give chance to more local players to participate in the training slated to be held in Germany, instead of officials who will not play during the 2010 Nations Cup and World Cup qualifiers.

One of the fans, James T. Willie, said he sees no reason why Adolph Lawrence, Vice President for operations and George Williams, Secretary General of the Liberia Football Association (LFA) respectively should form part of the training trip that is intended for players.

He reasoned that when the former national team coach Frank Jericho Nagbe and Lawrence went to Manchester United in England for training, they were not accompanied by any player, and therefore asked that they give way to players to make the trip to Germany .

Willie indicated George Williams did not include any player on any of the trips he made to FIFA Congresses or CAF meetings because those trips were not intended for players but Officials. He said the trip to Germany , is intended for players and not officials of the FA or Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Another follower of the game and Secretary of the Youth for Soccer Development (YSD), Martin Joemah said the Deputy Minister for Sports Marbue Richards is not the only sports man in the Liberia to always head the National team outside the Country.

He disclosed that Richards was part of a six weeks training opportunity that was extended the Lone Stars by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1974.

Joemah also recalled how Richards headed the national teams' delegation to the 2006 Abuja Games in Nigeria and the National Table Tennis Team to China .

Richards, he also said, headed the senior national soccer team to Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon during the 2008 qualifiers and therefore wants him to give chance to other sports officials and players to allow them gain experience.

The YSD Secretary General also said that he believe some local players named were not place on the list for the training opportunity in Germany just to create room for Minister Richards and his LFA colleges. ”I think this is not the way sports should be run in a Country whose players need international exposure,” he concluded.