LKF pleads for Support …As Senator Joseph gives Green Light

The Liberia Kickball Federation (LKF), the umbrella body of Liberia’s traditional sport – kickball, is at the verge of hitting the jackpot if all the favorable commitments made by Montserrado County Senator Saah H. Joseph on the precious Friday evening of June 30, 2023 are actualized to the fullest. 

Like football, kickball is played in every community and at the height of the country’s most prestigious sports festival, the National County Sports Meet (NCSM), thus making it the second most popular sport in the country. However, the game remains the most under-funded sport by the Government of Liberia (GoL).

But as things stand, it seems that the LKF leadership and all kickball stakeholders now have a lot to smile about on the back of the visit of the Montserrado County Senator. 

Speaking during the well-attended meeting with Sen. Joseph, LKF President Emmanuel Suprise Whea put forth the most pressing needs of the LKF that would take the game to another level.   

Among the key requests catalogued to the Montserrado County lawmaker, the LKF boss named the construction of a mini sport pitch exclusively for kickball, a bus that would help ease the transportation burden off the shoulders of teams’ President, bathrooms and other basic logistical supports. 

In addition, Mr. Whea did not leave out the issue of financial support for the successful running of the leagues across the country. 

“Our main plead at this point is, please help us to fix our field. As the country makes many strides towards women’s empowerment, this is a sport only played by women that has no support and so attention must be drawn in this direction. Our females come onto the various pitches to play and then in the end go home without anything. It's only the sacrifice of others, especially the various teams’ President that we all survive on. The challenges are enormous and we have been fighting and fighting; yet, we continue to find it difficult in getting the needed support,” stated the LKF President. 

“Honorable Senior Senator, the main reason why we are here is to tell you to help fix our pitch. We want you please tell the President to take us from dust to tuff. We want a mini playing pitch specifically for kickball. Another challenge is transportation. We need just a bus that will help transport our teams. Our clubs spend hugely on transportation and get nothing in return. We also need bathrooms for our players, match officials and even the fans, who come to grace these games. And at this time, we are going to be clear in our engagement. If you do us, we do you. The LKF will no longer be silent in these elections, because it is our silence that got us to where we are today,” Mr. Whea added. 

The meeting was initially scheduled to be held with the Montserrado County Senator, who is also a top ranking member of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), alongside the Minister of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), but the latter did not show up. 

However, the cries by the LKF were all given green light by the Senator, who is bidding for his first nine-year tenure, having been elected five years ago to end the tenure of former Senator George Manneh Weah, following his (Weah) election to the country’s highest political seat – the presidency in the 2017 in the Presidential and Legislative Elections. 

Accordingly, as stakeholders held on to listen to the responses of Sen. Joseph on the different requests made, the few minutes that followed were occasioned by cheering and dancing as the Senator showed green light to the issues. 

“I will support all of the teams, because I am aware of the challenges. I am happy to be here with you and for you too, to wait so patiently just to be here with me,” he noted. 
 
“Among all the things listed, we will first start with the bathrooms. So please ask the authorities of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and if they approve it, I will start the bathrooms immediately. The message about the pitch, I will ensure that we have another meeting where the President himself will be in attendance. You deserve a playing pitch here and we will do our best we can to help you, because you deserve better. I am going to give that message to the President. But while we await the President, you can count on us and we will provide our own support,” the Montserrado County Senator, among other things, assured the gathering.