Controversies Marred LFA Award As Champions Determine Girls Say They Were Robbed

The 2023-2024 Liberia Football Association Award was again marred by controversies, as some club executives, journalists and fans continued to rant on social media about how the votes were cast in the respective categories.

Key among the contentious issues is how no player of Upper Women’s League Champions Determine Girls that scored the most goals, conceded the least, and lost just a single game throughout the season couldn’t merit any of the awards shortlisted for vote in the women’s category.

Determine Girls Gambian midfielder Mbassey Darboe who had the highest goal contribution in the league 70, 47 assists, 23 goals in 26 appearances was nominated for the MVP award along with Guinean striker Mabinty Camara, 41 goals, the highest in the league, 12 assists in 22 matches.

Defender Ruggy Joof, a Gambian center back was also nominated for the Best defender award, while Determine’s Patience Gowah was nominated for the best coach award.

However, their closest rivals, Shaita Angels won multiple awards including the league most valuable player to Erica Parson who scored 21 goals last season, Best defender (Faith Chichi), Best Foreign Player (Mary Nunu) and Best coach (Manroe Winn).

Grace Hawa Weah, President of Determine Girls FC, in a strong statement, accused the LFA of denying all Determine Girls FC players from receiving any of the prestigious awards, despite their impressive statistics and performances.

“LFA, denied all Determine Girls FC players from being awarded tonight even though the statistics are clear to see.

You robbed players who have worked and dedicated their time, efforts and resources over the years just to prove a point. Shame on all of you involved,” Madam Weah, alias Master Queen expressed.

She reassured the players that this setback would not discourage their careers, urging them to continue their dedication and hard work.

Two seasons ago, Determine Girls defenders Magarett Stewart and Jestina Wilson refused to play for the Women’s National team after they were snubbed by the votes for the Best defender award, Earth Angels’ versatile player Francisca Howe won the award that year.

Jestina Wilson went on to retire from active football after that incident.

Another controversial award on the night was the First Division Best Defender award, which went to Paynesville FC’s Eugene Swen, even though his club conceded one of the highest goals in the league (41). Alexander Curtist and Natus Swen who propelled Watanga to the Championship, conceding the least goal (14) in the league and single defeat were snubbed by the voters.

Emmett Stages Glassco, President of Senior Pro FC, in a post after the ceremony accused the LFA of poor management and alleging that the award nominations were influenced by favoritism.

“How come you nominated players that their team did not do well last season and some of them conceded more goals but they were nominated for best defender award” he argued.

LFA Defense

Meanwhile, the football association has issued a statement that winners of its annually held award ceremony are not selected by them, but voted for by journalists, coaches and captains.
“The Liberia Football Association (LFA) would like to clarify that the winners of its prestigious annual football awards are not selected by the association itself or the awards committee.

Instead, the selection of awardees is determined by votes cast by coaches, team captains, and accredited journalists.”
“This democratic voting process ensures that the decisions reflect the views and expertise of those most deeply involved in the game.

The results, detailing how coaches, team captains, and accredited journalists voted, will be published,” the LFA Statement said.

Per the 2024 Award voting procedure, coaches and captains in the three divisions, 1st and 2nd and the Upper Women’s league were given 40% each with First Division Coaches and captains entitle to only vote for category in the first division (MVP, best defender and best coach), same with the second and women’s divisions.

The 25 accredited sports journalists had 20% of the vote and had the leverage to vote in each category in the three divisions.

There were no nominations for the categories: Fair play, Best Goalkeepers, Top goal scorers; these were based on statistics like highest clean sheets, less yellow cards, and highest goal scored from the LFA Competition Department, while the Media component which was made of Photo Journalist of the Year and Best journalist of the year was decided by a panel of experienced media practitioners.

Their job was to review applications of journalists who covered football under the year in review and make a judgment per the criteria released.

The best male and female referee component was decided mainly from the Referee’s Assessors reports of the season.

Below is the list of winners at the 2024 ceremony