Monrovia — The Liberia Football Association has confirmed that the women's under-20 team will not participate in the WAFU U20 women's cup, which will be hosted in Sierra Leone. According to the Liberia Football Association, the team did not sign up for the WAFU-20 tournament due to technical and financial reasons.
This is the second time that Liberia has failed to attend the competition, the first being Cape Verde's 2022 WAFU Zone A due to the government's failure to transport the team and pay the players' allowances.
Following the news of Liberia's women's U-20 team not participating in the tournament that will kick off from May 25 to June 11, many football stakeholders have expressed dissatisfaction with the constant absence of the female team from such international competitions.
Speaking to our sports desk, the president of Liberia Upper Women's Club Senior Professional Female Football Club, Emmett Glassco, said that it is disappointing for Liberian female football to hear that the country's youth team will not be at the WAFU tournament. "This is very disheartening news about Liberian football that our women U20 team will not be participating in the WAFU tournament. This is sad," Glassco said.
According to him, the reasons the FA gave for not participating in the tournament are not genuine, and he feels that the FA is not saying the real reason behind the team's absence from the youth tournament in Sierra Leone.
Glassco alleged that most of the female players are afraid to speak their minds on the country's absence from the tournament because if they do so, they may not be called to the national team again.
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"I believe that this administration is not interested in women's football, because FIFA and CAF have put a lot of money into women's football, but today we come back to say no money or age issue. I think this is sad, this administration needs to wake up and stop suppressing the girls and allow them to go out there and showcase their talents to the world," Glassco said.
He said that the gap between women's football and men's football is wide, something he said needs to stop giving reference to the upcoming male under-17 and U-20 team trip to Tunisia for training camp.
Glassco is recommending that the FA set up a team from the technical department to follow the various women's leagues and select the best players for the national teams and put in the necessary resources and create a technical team that will follow the leagues and teams. In that way, Liberia will be able to put up a good national team that will represent the country and give the needed results.
It can be recalled that in January 2022, the Football House issued a statement that they could not participate in the 2022 tournament due to financial issues. "The Liberia Football Association (LFA) has informed the West African Football Union (WAFU Zone 'A') that Liberia will not be participating in the second edition of the women's Nations Cup in Cape Verde from 20-30 January.
"The LFA took the decision following discussions with the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MYS) for the provision of financial support to various national teams."
"The MYS said the government is not in the position to provide financial support for the women's national team to compete in this year's edition." The FA posted on its Football Page on January 18, 2022.
