This archive report was first published on 15 August 2019.
On August 14, 2019, the Sierra Leone government rejected the nomination of Ghana-born Sellas Tetteh to head the national football team, which had recently emerged from suspension by Fifa for political interference.
According to a letter published by the director of sports Kenneth Brima, the sports ministry did not recognize Tetteh as the national team's head coach because the application process was 'incomplete'. The ministry alleged that representatives of the FA's interview panel had entered the process with a premeditated idea of who they wanted, leading to a 'logical conclusion'.
Tetteh, 62, had been chosen by the West African nation's football federation to lead the national team, with the announcement stating that he would take up the post 'in 48 hours'. The federation's recruitment commission had picked him over Spanish-Swiss Raoul Savoy, Dutchman Tahseen Jabbary, and Englishman Peter Butler.
Sierra Leone's national football team had been suspended by Fifa in October 2018 due to government interference. The suspension was lifted in June 2019 after the authorities in the country acquitted the national football federation's former president and secretary general of corruption.
