The current premier league champions of Sierra Leone Ports Authority (SLPA) football club (FC) and the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) have cleared the air over $3,000 from EGS Gafsa a Tunisia team which played against Ports Authority in the continental competition.
The first to clear the air was the SLPA -FC Secretary General Idrissa Tarawally who said as an executive “we never took any $3,000 from EGS Gafsa” and that they only knew about it through the SLFA President Nahim Kadi.
He went further to state that they made an advance payment of 26 million Leone’s to Hotel Mariam for a delegation of 25 people which is the total amount they are supposed to pay according to FIFA regulations.
Idrissa said that the team came with an additional 11 people and they slept for only one night at Hotel Mariam and they decided to leave Hotel Mariam for Bintumani Hotel with the additional 11 people.
For this he said the EGS Gafsa officials said that they will pay the difference for the additional 11 people and according to Idrissa they have nothing to do in that case.
The Administrative Secretary General of the SLFA Abubakarr Kabba said that the president of the SLFA Nahim Kadi came to him to salvage the situation after the EGS Gafsa delegation had left Hotel Mariam.
SLFA President Kadi he said wasted no time and made a deposit (paid some amount of money) to Bintumani Hotel to help resolve the issue quickly.
Kabba explained further that by then the money that was paid by Ports Authority to Hotel Mariam which payment he said was made by the Team Manager SLPA-FC was still with the Hotel management and when they went there again the Hotel Mariam management deducted the cost of the one day lodging and gave back the balance which was equally paid to the Bintumani Hotel management who then refunded the money deposited earlier by the SLFA president Nahim Kadi
However he continued EGS Gafsa had to pay for the extra 11 people which amounted to $3,000. This money he said was paid to Bintumani hotel and not paid to Ports Authority.
The administrative Secretary said that SLFA President Nahim did what he did as President of the association to avoid the problem of lodging coming up during the protocol meetings “he did it in good faith” he said.
He appealed to media houses to let the issue of $3000 from EGS Gafsa be laid to rest.
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