LFA President Raji Troubled by Current Financial Headache Facing the Lone Star

By: W. Roland James

Paynesville, Liberia: The President of the Liberia Football Association, Mustapha Raji, says the current financial constraints facing the National Team of Liberia is hindering the Lone Star from sufficiently preparing for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Liberia is due to face Togo and Algeria in September this year as part of the 2025 AFCON qualifiers in Group E, but the Lone Star is yet to commence training due to the National Team Head Coach reported stay-away based on his unsettled arrears by the Ministry Youth and Sports and Liberia Football House.

The LFA President disclosed that the National Team Head Coach, Mario Marinica, has requested his two months unpaid salaries before rcommencing training with the Lone Star.

Appearing on Kool FM, on Monday, July 29, Mustapha Raji said the indebtedness of the Liberian FA and Ministry of Youth and Sports to the Lone Star head coach and staff has caused a serious loss of time in preparing the team for the upcoming AFCON qualifiers matches.

"We received a message from the coach citing a breach of trust and lack of interest on the part of the Football Association in terms of committing to covering paying their salaries, benefits of staff and players. To date, we are indebted to the coach for two months, June and July. And we have not paid the bonus of the coach and the staff."

"Their monthly earning is Thirteen Thousand United States Dollars (USD 13,000), excluding the additional two thousand for feeding the coach. So we that six coaches that earned that amount that have to be distributed among them. Football development requires a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of energy."

"Liberia as a country, received the biggest jump in the recent FIFA ranking by 10 places, it shows that we are moving in the right path but with what is happening now, the signal is not so good we have lost a lot of time in terms of preparation. We have Togo and Algeria to play in September, which is not far from now," Raji mentioned.

Meanwhile, LFA President Mustapha Raji has emphasized that the Football body and the Ministry of Youth and Sports are currently working to find a remedy to address the situation.

He further that the Football Body is set to meet with the Government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports to find a way forward to either clear the coach's unsettled arrears or terminate his contract and pay him off if the government through the Ministry is not interested in his contract and services.

He used the medium to call on the government of Liberia to quickly see the need to handle the current financial constraints if the Lone Star must maintain Coach Mario Marinica.

"We are calling on the Ministry of Finance that we need to take into consideration that we need to address this issue as soon as possible. If the government is not interested in the services of the coach, the Football Association will be meeting its Executive Committee to either terminate the contract and pay him what he is due", he stressed.

There have been speculations that the Ministry of Youth and Sports is not satisfied with the contract with the LFA to appoint Coach Mario Marinica for apparently not having a representation in the process or over the monthly wage bill.

But sports pundits believe the issues of indebtedness to coaches, especially of the national team, has been perennial a problem facing the Ministry and the Liberian FA. A similar issue was witnessed during the regimes of Peter Bulter and Ansu Keita who are the two immediate past coaches of the National team of Liberia.

From the few matches managed with the national team, many wish the LFA would employ all strategies to maintain Coach Mario Marinica who has recorded an impressive performance with the Lone Star in just a short while.

Marinica has managed four official games, won 2, and drew 2, one of the best performances in recent years put up by the national team that led the country to advance from 152 to 142 in the recent FIFA Football ranking.