The chairman of the Lone Star Mobilization Committee said Tuesday that Liberia’s national football team has spent two decades failing to qualify for major tournaments because of chronic coaching instability, and called for a foreign coach hired on a minimum five-year contract to reverse the decline.
Rev. Luther Tarpeh, speaking at the Ministry of Information’s regular press briefing, said the revolving door of technical leadership has gutted player development and team cohesion, comparing the team’s situation to a child shuttled between homes.
« Lone Star players are treated like a child that is in somebody’s house for two weeks, then taken to another parent for two weeks, » Tarpeh said. « That kind of instability cannot produce results. »
Tarpeh, who recently traveled with the team to Morocco during the international break, also raised concerns about player welfare, saying some team members reported unpaid hotel bills during trips abroad.
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« As a Liberian, I was very ashamed, » he said. « There are hotels around Africa that we are owing. »
He said the Mobilization Committee, working with the Liberia Football Association and the government, is pushing for a professional foreign coach on a five-year minimum contract to address what he called the « real issues » affecting the team.
Beyond structural fixes, Tarpeh urged Liberians to redirect their passion from European club football to the national side. « It is time that we transform the passion we have for European football and start supporting the pride of the motherland, » he said. « If we do not support the Lone Star, who will? »
He said players often feel abandoned by their own supporters despite wearing the national colors. « We follow the scores, but we don’t understand what they are going through, » Tarpeh said.
Tarpeh pointed to Liberia’s football legacy, citing former President George Weah, Africa’s only Ballon d’Or winner, as proof of the country’s potential. He estimated that at least $5 million will be needed to boost Liberia’s chances of qualifying for the next Africa Cup of Nations and appealed for both financial and spiritual support from citizens at home and in the diaspora.
The Mobilization Committee is set to officially launch on May 14, Liberia’s National Unification Day, with a parade from the Ministry of Health in Congo Town to the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville.
« As discouraged as you have been, it’s time to let that go, » Tarpeh said. « We must be optimistic. The boys we have now are determined. »
Source:
allafrica.com
