President Bio Snubs Isha Johansen

President of the Sierra Leone Foot Ball Association (SLFA), Madam Isha Johansen, was on Wednesday prevented from entering the conference room at State Lodge on a proposed meeting between President Julius Maada Bio, FIFA President, Gianni Infantino  and CAF President, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, during their tour in the West African Region.

 Aisha Johansen was shocked and embarrassed when denied access to enter the conference room, where the first engagement with CAF and FIFA was supposed to take place, with no clear reason given as to why that action was taken.

The visit was part of the final leg of the joint CAF and FIFA mission to West Africa to the following countries: Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia. Unfortunately, the SLFA President and her executive are said to have deliberately misinformed the public, intimating that it was Isha Johansen that had influenced the coming of the two prominent football figures in the world. 

One cannot contest or challenge her international backing, with the FIFA & CAF, maybe in pretext of Gender balance or football corruption, but little or nothing has been achieved and not much improvement has been seen in the game due to infighting at the association.

Even though FIFA Chief Gianni has cautioned Sierra Leone authorities to work together to resolve a protracted impasse in the administration of football in the country, the row between rival factions in the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), which stemmed from the election of Aisha Johansen as the country’s first female Football Association president in 2013, has derailed competition and is responsible for the current state of the game.