By Sigismond Nicol
In an interview with the chairman of Closet Creation, Alhassan Sesay, said the competition started since 1998 during the civil war in Sierra Leone when lungi was one of the safest parts in Sierra Leone.
At the time they thought of bringing the people of Kaffu Bullom chiefdom together by organizing a football competition, and the first edition was played at Don Bosco youth center. By then the winner prize was 60,000 Leone which was a huge amount by then; today it is 100 million Leone. This shows how the competition has grown.
“Clozet creation as an organization on behalf of the people of Kaffu Bullom chiefdom and sierra Leone, we want to make an appeal to the government to help uplift the Lungi center field. We have flat land where they can construct the field so that at least the country will have a mini stadium as back up to the national stadium that we have,” he said.
Clozet creation as an organization during the 21 years has been able to build schools – both junior secondary school and senior secondary school. The Clozet competition has produced potential players; lads have been exposing their talent and have gained the attention Kaffu Bullom chiefdom and the district; and some have even gone as far as the national team.
“We are calling for support from everyone especially Mercury International, Africell and others. One hundred million is not a small amount. This year’s competition will be playing for 100 million leones and we are still without any sponsorship. We have tried to contact both Africell and Mercury and the Sierra Leone Air Port Authority with series of requests but they are yet to respond. We know they are on transition but it must be stated that they have been supporting us.”
The 100 million will be shared thus: 55 million for the winner, 30 million for the runner up, 2,500 each to the two teams that will be exiting the semi final, and 10 million for various Awards like best player, best goalkeeper, best Defender, best Midfielder, highest goal scorer and the best behaved team.
