Sierra Leone’s football federation picked Sellas Tetteh over Spanish-Swiss Raoul Savoy, Dutchman Tahseen Jabbary and Englishman Peter Butler © AFP / KHALED DESOUKI
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, Aug 14 – The Sierra Leone government on Wednesday rejected the nomination of Ghana-born Sellas Tetteh to head the national football team, which has recently emerged from suspension by FIFA for political interference.
On Tuesday the West African nation’s football federation chose 62-yeard-old Tetteh as the national coach, announcing that he would take up the post “in 48 hours”.
The federation’s recruitment commission picked him over Spanish-Swiss Raoul Savoy, Dutchman Tahseen Jabbary and Englishman Peter Butler.
The sports ministry said it did not recognise Sellas Tetteh as the national team’s head coach because the application process was “incomplete”, according to a letter published by the director of sports Kenneth Brima on Wednesday.
The ministry alleged that representatives of the FA’s interview panel had entered the process with a premeditated idea of who they wanted and so it “did not lead to a logical conclusion”.
Tetteh has previously served as national team coach in a caretaker capacity.
In June FIFA lifted the suspension of Sierra Leone after the authorities in the country acquitted the national football federation’s former president and secretary general of corruption.
Football’s world governing body FIFA had suspended the Sierra Leone Football Association in October due to “government interference”.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) then disqualified the country from the 2019 African Cup of Nations qualifying competition.
The row stemmed from the decision of Sierra Leone’s anti-corruption commission to sack Sierra Leone Football Association president Isha Johansen and general secretary Christopher Kamara during an ongoing probe into corruption and mismanagement.
The two men were acquitted by a court in Freetown on May 27.
