{"id":40953,"date":"2012-05-19T19:08:26","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T19:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=40953"},"modified":"2012-05-19T19:08:26","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T19:08:26","slug":"sierra-leone-league-resumes-thanks-to-local-generosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=40953","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone league resumes thanks to local generosity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sierra Leone’s football league resumed on Friday, less than a week after suspending operations because of a shortage of funds. <\/a><\/p>\n

League chairman Victor Lewis said that generosity from those close to the game has enabled the resumption.<\/p>\n

“We are using money from friends and family members, as well as my own pocket and those of the league board as well,” Lewis told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

“If the money runs out and there is no further support it will be a disaster.”<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u201cI hope some companies can come to our aid and save Sierra Leonean football\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n

League chairman Victor Lewis<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“But we hope it will not get to that point.”<\/p>\n

Lewis revealed that Sierra Leone’s FA is also helping out a league which restarted as Old Edwardians took on FC Johansen on Friday.<\/p>\n

However, he estimates that the funds that the league board has managed to acquire will only cover a third of the season’s remaining games.<\/p>\n

“We are still looking out for sponsorship but we can’t sit down and just watch the days roll by,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“The rains are coming, so we have to do something and we have to make sure we push Sierra Leonean football forward.<\/p>\n

“The clubs want to play and the board wants the league to move on as well.”<\/p>\n

Lewis described himself as ‘dumbfounded’ at the lack of sponsors willing to invest in the Sierra Leonean game.<\/p>\n

Despite repeated requests to companies from the mining, banking, gambling and mobile phone sectors, the league is still without a sponsor.<\/p>\n

“I am dumbfounded as to why they don’t want to sponsor us – but I hope some companies can come to our aid and save Sierra Leonean football,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Somewhere along the line, maybe someone can come in and we are still calling on people from the private sector to come in.“<\/em><\/p>\n

BBC Sport<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sierra Leone’s football league resumed on Friday, less than a week after suspending operations because of a shortage of funds. League chairman Victor Lewis said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,1],"tags":[2792,8346,9711],"class_list":["post-40953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-uncategorized","tag-sierra-leone-football","tag-sierra-leone-premier-league","tag-victor-lewis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}