FIFA, CAF Presidents meet with Sierra Leone President: talk infrastructural development

Sierra Leone’s Minister of Sport, Ibrahim Nyelenkeh, welcomed the delegation from the football world governing bodies, saying that it was history in the making that the country was hosting the sitting presidents of FIFA and CAF for the first time.

“I am not surprised. You must have heard about government’s assiduous strides and relentless efforts at developing and supporting football from the grassroots to the national level,” he noted, adding that the present government had supported sport, particularly football, more than all others in the history of Sierra Leone.

While introducing the visitors, the President of Sierra Leone Football Association, SLFA, Isha Johansen, said that their visit was as timely and historic as it was meaningful to the country. She thanked them for choosing Sierra Leone as one of their three Africa nation tours, the others being cote d’ivoire and Liberia.

FIFA’s President Infantino told the gathering that it was an honour and a pleasure to be in Sierra Leone, saying that they were very committed to helping and supporting Africa shine in the world.

“We know how important football is in Africa. Football is talent, football is passion in Africa. In Sierra Leone, in particular, football is not just a game, football is life. I think the time has come where we have to move forward and look into the future.

“FIFA and CAF stand for due process, for integrity, for democracy and to make sure that we can once again put aside all negativities that have tarnished the image of football in the country in the last few years. Let us move to promote a positive and united approach because we need unity in this country,” he urged.

The Swiss and Italian national, who has been president at FIFA since 26 February 2016, also called on all stakeholders to work together to make football very attractive and a way of life. He said everyone needed to work together for the development of the country, particularly in Sierra Leone where football was much more important.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino

CAF’s President Motsepe first thanked President Bio for his honesty, integrity and brotherly exchange of ideas, before calling on all to work together and with him in the best interest of football and a beautiful country.

He confessed that the President represented a new breed of leadership not just for Sierra Leone but for Africa, adding that the country had also produced exceptional football players and expressed hope that it would continue to produce great players. He pledged CAF and FIFA’s commitment to supporting Sierra Leone with the requisite infrastructure to host the African Cup of Nations in the not-too-distant future.

In a brief statement, President Bio welcomed the Presidents of FIFA and CAF to his beautiful country, noting that football remained a fashion that the people of his country loved and cherished.

“It is one of the uniting forces in Sierra Leone. We are very polarised when it comes to politics, but when it comes to football you can see the passion, you can see the joy. It is a different Sierra Leone, especially with football,” he assured.

He also stated that normally when passion clashed, there were always bits of challenges, but emphasised that the country looked forward to an SLFA leadership that would move the country as a nation. He advised that the people should not be deprived of the game that every Sierra Leonean loved.

President Bio further stated that besides the politics of football and the few challenges with regard to infrastructure, the people of his country were friendly and good. He called on the leadership of the two world football governing bodies to invest in the infrastructure of the game in the country. “On behalf of the government and people of Sierra Leone, I want to thank you and would like you to come again. Thank you for coming and you are welcome to Sierra Leone,” he concluded

Blood-based biomarker can detect, predict severity of traumatic brain injury

A study from the National Institutes of Health confirms that neurofilament light chain as a blood biomarker can detect brain injury and predict recovery in multiple groups, including professional hockey players with acute or chronic concussions and clinic-based patients with mild, moderate, or severe traumatic brain injury. The research was conducted by scientists at the NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, and published in the July 8, 2020(link is external), online issue of Neurology.

Neurofilament Light Chain on the Neuron Credit: Pashtun Shahim, M.D., Ph.DNIH Clinical Center

After a traumatic brain injury, neurofilament light chain breaks away from neurons in the brain and collects in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The scientists confirmed that neurofilament light chain also collects in the blood in levels that correlate closely with the levels in the CSF. They demonstrated that neurofilament light chain in the blood can detect brain injury and predict recovery across all stages of traumatic brain injury.

“Currently, there are no validated blood-based biomarkers to provide an objective diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury or to predict recovery,” said Leighton Chan, M.D., M.P.H., chief of the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at the NIH Clinical Center. “Our study reinforces the need and a way forward for a non-invasive test of neurofilament light chain to aid in the diagnosis of patients and athletes whose brain injuries are often unrecognized, undiagnosed or underreported. “

The study examined multiple groups including professional hockey players in Sweden with sports-related concussions, hockey players without concussions, hockey players with persistent post-concussion symptoms, non-athlete controls, and clinic-based patients at the NIH Clinical Center who were healthy or with acute, subacute, and chronic mild traumatic brain injuries. The study showed that neurofilament light chain in the blood:

• Correlated closely with CSF neurofilament light chain in hockey players with concussions and non-athlete healthy controls, suggesting that blood neurofilament light chain could be used instead of CSF neurofilament light chain.

• Demonstrated strong diagnostic ability for sports-related concussions, where it could identify hockey players with concussions from hockey players without concussions and could identify clinic-based patients with mild, moderate, and severe traumatic brain injuries from each other and controls. This is significant as there is an unmet need for an easy and accessible blood biomarker to determine at the time of injury or in the chronic phase if a person has a concussion or signs of a traumatic brain injury.
• Could distinguish with high accuracy hockey players who could return to play after 10 days from those who developed persistent post-concussion symptoms and eventually retired from the game. In the clinic-based cohort, patients with worse functional outcomes had higher blood neurofilament light chain levels. This is significant as there is an unmet need for a blood biomarker that can help clinicians to determine when athletes can safely return to play or when patients can return to work or resume daily activities.

In the clinic-based patients, the levels of blood neurofilament light chain at five years after a single mild, moderate, or severe traumatic brain injury were significantly increased compared to healthy controls. This suggests that even a single mild traumatic brain injury (without visible signs of structural damage on a standard clinical MRI) may cause long-term brain injury, and serum neurofilament light could be a sensitive biomarker to detect even that far out from initial injury.

“This study is the first to do a detailed assessment of serum neurofilament light chain and advanced brain imaging in multiple cohorts, brain injury severities, and time points after injury,” said the study’s lead author, Pashtun Shahim, M.D., Ph.D., NIH Clinical Center. “Our results suggest that serum neurofilament light chain may provide a valuable compliment to imaging by detecting underlying neuronal damage which may be responsible for the long-term symptoms experienced by a significant number of athletes with acute concussions, and patients with more severe brain injuries.”

The study was funded by the Intramural Research Program at NIH, the Department of Defense Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine at the Uniformed Services University, and the Swedish Research Council.

Traumatic brain injury is a major leading cause of death and disability in the United States with more than 2.87 million emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths annually. While majority of all traumatic brain injuries are classified as mild (also known as a concussion), it remains difficult to diagnose this condition. There are a wide range of variable behavioral and observational tests to help determine a patient’s injuries but most of these tests rely on the patient to self-report signs and symptoms. Also, imaging has limitations with detecting micro-structural injuries in the brain.

Sierra Leone court acquits embattled SLFA Boss corruption

A high court in Freetown has acquitted and discharged the President and the Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Football Association on corruption charges.

The two have been standing trial for alleged corruption for a very long time.

The Justice Reginald Fynn-court’s ruling paves the way for Johansen to be reinstated as the Sierra Leone Football Association, SLFA, boss.

FIFA last year suspended the SLFA due to government interference in soccer affairs, specifically protesting the removal of Johansen and general secretary Christopher Kamara.

Johansen and Kamara have both denied any wrongdoing over allegations of match-fixing involving the national team.

Global football governing body, FIFA’s ban on the West African country led to the inability of the SLFA to compete in the qualification towards the African Cup of Nations, AFCON 2019, slated for Egypt.

“Our appeal has been rejected,” the Football Association president Brima Mazzola Kamara, who replaced Johansen, told Reuters back in October 2018.

“It is not what we were hoping for, especially since this now means the CAF match won’t be happening. FIFA told us that Isha’s reinstatement was a prerequisite for our suspension being lifted, and when we told them she had not returned to work, they denied us,” he added.

Mazzola Kamara said that the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission will not budge on their decision to oust Johansen and SLFA general secretary Christopher Kamara.

Sierra Leone Premier League Board disciplines defaulting Referees

Premier league Board Chairman Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai

The Sierra Leone Premier League Board (SLPLB) wishes to inform the general public and fervent followers of the ongoing Sierra Leone Premier League that, in a way of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in the ongoing 2018-2019 League season, the Disciplinary and Protest Committee in accordance with the premier league rules and regulations have completed investigations on official complaints/reports received from previous league matches from across the country.
After thorough investigations and with evidences available, the committee was able to arrive at the following decisions from the respective matches as stipulated in the reports below:

Disciplinary actions have been taken by the SLFA Referees Committee against the following Officials on the 22nd February, 2019.

*Bo Rangers vs East End Tigers*

Referee: *Ibrahim Gassama – Kono*

Assistant Referee: *Joseph B. Koroma -Tonkolili*

The above Named Referees took decisions which did not conform with the Laws and spirits of the game contrary to Law 10.
In this regard the above Referees are demoted to Division one.

9th March, 2019

*FC Kallon vs Kamboi Eagles*

Referee: *Mohmed Daddy Conteh*

The above named Referee failed to interpret Law 12 for DOGOSO offence contrary to the Law of the game.
A player who commits an offense is sent off (Red Card) for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity to an opponent whose overall movement is towards the offside goal by is an offense punishable by a Free kick by holding an opponent out of the penalty area.

In this regard the Named Referee is suspended for fourteen (14) days for failing to issue a Red card which is contrary to Law 12.

The Premier League Board is also assuring football fans of its total commitment towards ensuring a violence-free Premier League.

Energy Giant, Aiteo, Sponsors Hit Theme Song for Nigeria’s 2018 World Cup Campaign

Aiteo Group (www.AiteoGroup.com), the Official Optimum Partner of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), last Saturday premiered to industry applause, an official theme song to mentally boost the Super Eagles of Nigeria to go for glory at the Russia 2018 World Cup.

This is also as they pledged to donate $50,000 to the team ‘for every unreturned goal’ scored at the Mundial.

The rousing theme song titled, ‘Dem Go Hear Am, meaning “Go Show Them” was put together by Nigeria’s Hip-Hop/Afrobeat luminaries; Olamide and Phyno. The Single, has been well received by Nigeria’s teeming football and music fans, and is currently enjoying massive airplay with over 1,000,000 downloads recorded across assorted media channels. The hit track had also garnered 7.5 million social media impressions barely 24 hours after release.

According to Benedict Peters, the Executive Vice Chairman of Aiteo Global Group, the Group’s sponsorship of the theme song is yet another demonstration of its commitment to promoting football in Nigeria as a means of uniting the people.

“Football is a phenomenon in Nigeria. You can see and feel its power on every street. It galvanises unity amongst our people, irrespective of ethnic or class differences. As the World Cup kicks off, we solidly throw our weight behind our national team and its ever-effervescent supporters spread across the globe. We look forward to great football moments that will become historic as the Super Eagles play to covet the World Cup trophy,” he said.

Also speaking at the launch of the theme song, President of Nigeria’s Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, extolled Aiteo for its unflinching support for football development in Nigeria. “Aiteo has been magnanimous, not just to the Super Eagles but in their contributions towards the revitalisation of football in Nigeria and Africa. Our partnership has returned impressive results; we are able to pay our coaches on time and keep our players well motivated. We are glad that Aiteo continues to exceed our expectations always. They are indeed deserving of commendations.”

Aiteo signed a N2.5 billion (about USD 7 million) sponsorship agreement with NFF in May 2017, to cater for the salaries of all national team coaches for a period of five years.

At a star-studded listening party for the theme song which held in Lagos on Saturday June 9, 2018, Aiteo Group, also announced a $50,000 bonus for every unreturned goal scored by the Super Eagles, at the Mundial.