Sierra Leone Football Association - last updated on 14 September 2007
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Association name: Sierra Leone Football Association
Foundation: 1967
Confederation CAF
Colours: Green, white and blue
Website: www.slfa.tk
Honours:
Amilcar Cabral Cup - 2 (1993, 1995)
A bit of history:
The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLAFA) is the governing body of football in Sierra Leone. It was founded in 1967, and affiliated to FIFA the same year. It is also a member of the Confederation of African Football from 1987. It organizes the national football league and the national team. The current coach is Andy Gray, with his assistant coach being John Sherington, the former head coach for 3 years.
In their seven attempts at qualifying for the FIFA World Cup™ finals, Sierra Leone have never come close to qualifying. They did though, have one moment of glory after advancing to the second round. That was in the 2002 edition, when they managed to turn a 2-0 first leg deficit against São Tomé e Príncipe into a 4-2 aggregate victory in the return leg and went through to the next round.
In the second round, the Leone Stars had their greatest moment in FIFA World Cup history, when they beat Nigeria, one of the powerhouses of African football 1-0. What made the result really remarkable was that Nigeria at that stage were far from certain of qualifying for Korea/Japan and after losing in Freetown looked like going out.
In the African pre-preliminary qualifying round for Germany 2006, Sierra Leone were drawn against Congo and hoped to emulate the success of the previous competition by advancing to the next round. A 1-0 victory for the Diables Rouges in Brazzaville left everything wide open for the return leg.
Shortly before the match in Freetown though, the home side's chances took a knock when FIFA ruled that the country's star striker, Mohammed Kallon would not be able to play after failing a drugs test. They still managed to open the scoring through Ibrahim Koroma's penalty, but that tally was cancelled by Rolf Nguiemien, and the tie ended 2-1 against the Leone Stars.
Sierra Leone's luck could change in the first round of qualifiers for South Africa 2010, however, as most experts fancy them to overcome opponents Guinea Bissau. And given that they are already lagging far behind in qualifying for the CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2008, the side are anxious to win back some pride with success in those two matches.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
Sierra Leone Football Association
