June 3 – Isha Johansen, whose eight-year reign as president of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) has been fraught with in-fighting and power struggles, has ruled herself out of Saturday’s elections and will not stand again.
Johansen’s (pictured with FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura) decision means Africa will be left without a single female federation chief and comes just three months after she was elected as the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) only female representative on the FIFA Council.
“As a recently elected FIFA council member, I will be required to play a higher level and more active role as a global ambassador for football and FIFA,” Johansen said in a statement.
“My new role will require extensive global travelling and consequently increased demands on my time.
“After much deliberation and soul searching, it’s with sadness that I have decided to announce the withdrawal of my candidacy for president in the upcoming SLFA elections.
“I hereby offer the new SLFA executive and staff my best wishes for the future and assure my full support from within FIFA.
“Whilst I pride myself in the belief that I have played a significant role in restoring integrity, compliance and good governance in our nation’s football, my fervent prayer is that we do not lose what we fought so hard to build.”
Johansen’s withdrawal leaves three candidates to battle for the presidency including Rodney Michael who late last year was cleared of match-fixing and with whom Johansen has had a fraught political relationship.
Johansen’s tenure has been anything but smooth since she was elected unopposed in 2013 after three other candidates were disqualified from standing including Michael. She has consistently claimed she wasbattling against betting corruption but in May 2019 she was acquitted of corruption herself and has long enjoyed the support of FIFA against her political enemies.
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