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Sierra Leone's sports minister Ibrahim Nyelenkeh
The news Sierra Leone sports minister, Ibrahim Nyelenkeh, has declared that peace must return to the domestic league to resume in 90 days as he works to heal the rift dividing football in his country.
Infighting at the Sierra Leone Football Association has stopped domestic league football for almost four years.
Two rival bodies, one led by Isha Johansen recognised by Fifa and the other led by Brima Mazola Kamara all claimed to be in charge.
Kamara took over last year after Johansen was set aside by her executive when she was charged with corruption which she strongly denies.
The main issues dividing the SLFA concern the delays to FA elections and match fixing investigations and the conduct of integrity checks on officials wanting to contest executive positions.
Fifa has named a four-man match-fixing investigation unit to investigate 15 players and officials, though the investigations are yet to commence.
All the players and officials deny any wrongdoing.
Isha Johansen took charge of the Sierra Leone FA in 2013
Nyelenkeh agrees Johansen should take the lead in the peace process as directed in the Fifa roadmap, but he says she should still be set aside in line with the country's Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) laws.
But Fifa says it still recognises Isha Johansen as the president of the SLFA and says that the action of setting her aside due to the corruption case is "invalid," something Nyelenkeh disagrees with.
"Sierra Leone is a sovereign state - whether Fifa supports her or not we don't have that mandate to violate our constitution.
"We have respect for the rule of law. We can't circumvent it. Johansen knows that. In fact she had accepted that she should be set aside," Nyelenkeh said.
Courtesy of the BBC
