By Kendol Decker
Freetown, 8th December 2025– Sierra Leone’s sports governance is not broken by law, but by leadership. While our athletes strive for greatness, the very institutions meant to support them, the Ministry of Sports (MOS) and the National Sports Authority (NSA), are locked in a destructive turf war.
Their fight for power poses a serious threat to our national sporting potential. A house divided against itself cannot stand, and the house of Sierra Leonean sports is crumbling from within.
Across the world, successful sports systems are built on a clear principle: the Ministry makes policy, and the Authority implements it. The Ministry is the architect, designing the national vision for sports. The Authority is the builder, executing that vision on the ground.
This separation of powers, followed by nations like the UK, Canada, and Australia, prevents conflicts of interest and ensures professional administration. Sierra Leone’s own National Sports Authority Act of 2017 was designed to follow this exact model.
Yet, this sound design is being willfully ignored.
The Heart of the Conflict: A Deliberate Disregard for the Law
The conflict is not a matter of legal ambiguity but a deliberate refusal to adhere to the 2017 Act. The law clearly separates the roles of the MOS and NSA:
| Function | Ministry of Sport (MOS) | National Sports Authority (NSA) |
| Primary Role | Government Ministry (Policy) | Implementing Agency (Operations) |
| Policy Creation | Yes (Sets national policy) | No (Implements MOS policy) |
| Budget Control | Yes (Allocates all funds) | No (Manages its allocated funds only) |
| Federation Oversight | Regulatory & Governance | Administrative & Technical Support |
| Facility Management | Limited (Oversight) | Yes (Manages stadiums, facilities) |
This structure is the bedrock of modern sports governance. The MOS leads, the NSA implements, and sports federations manage their specific disciplines. The lines are clear, but they are being willfully crossed.
Where Governance Is Breaking Down
The current friction stems not from the law, but from a blatant disregard for it:
- The NSA Is Overstepping its Mandate: The NSA has publicly claimed a policy-making role, a function that legally belongs to the Ministry. When the implementer tries to write the rules, it creates a parallel government, leading to confusion and conflict.
- Financial Gatekeeping: The NSA has positioned itself as the financial gatekeeper for national sports funding, a move that oversteps its legal authority to simply manage its own allocated budget. This creates a bottleneck and politicizes funding that should flow directly to federations.
- Interference in Federation Affairs: The NSA’s role is to support federations, not control them. Yet, it has repeatedly interfered in the affairs of autonomous bodies like the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) and the National Olympic Committee (NOC), treating them as subordinates rather than partners. This undermines their authority and creates a culture of dependency.
Follow the Money: How Budget Allocation Deepened the Power Struggle
If you want to understand why the NSA has become emboldened and why the Ministry of Sports appears increasingly sidelined, look no further than the budget. Over the past several years, the Government of Sierra Leone, through the Ministry of Finance, has consistently allocated far more money to the National Sports Authority than to the Ministry of Sports, despite the law positioning the MOS as the lead policymaker and the NSA as the implementing arm.
This pattern did not happen by accident. It represents a quiet but powerful structural shift.
In 2021, the NSA received nearly seven times the allocation given to the Ministry of Sports (NLe 25.2 million vs. NLe 3.7 million). In 2022, the NSA again received more than seven times the Ministry’s budget (NLe 26.6 million vs. NLe 3.7 million). The gap widened dramatically in 2023, when the Ministry of Finance openly stated that while the MOS would receive NLe 4 million, the NSA would receive NLe 33.2 million more than eight times the ministry’s allocation. By 2024, the NSA’s budget soared to NLe 99.1 million, while the Ministry of Sports received no direct allocation for its core functions. For 2026, the NSA successfully secured a massive NLe 350 million allocation, cementing its financial dominance.
When the implementer is given seven to ten times the resources of the policymaker, the entire governance structure becomes inverted. Money is power, and the NSA’s dominance in financing has allowed it to operate as a de facto ministry, controlling access to resources, influencing events, and strengthening its grip over federations. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Sports starved of resources has struggled to assert its legal oversight role.
This financial imbalance is not just a budgeting quirk. It is one of the central drivers of the current turf war. When government spending overwhelmingly flows to the NSA, it sends a clear message about who truly holds authority in the sports sector. And when the purse strings favor the implementer rather than the policymaker, conflict is inevitable.
Sierra Leone’s athletes are paying the price for this misalignment. The solution is not to amend the law it is to realign financial governance with the law we already have.
In response, the Ministry has resorted to a defensive crouch, proposing to amend the law to weaken the NSA. This is a tacit admission of failed leadership. You don’t redesign a highway because of a few bad drivers; you enforce the rules of the road.
The Solution: Professionalism, Not Politics
Amending the NSA Act will not fix a problem of culture and leadership. It will only deepen the divide. The path to a functional sports ecosystem lies in a radical shift away from politics and towards professionalism.
- Appoint Experts, Not Political Loyalists: Key roles in the MOS, NSA, and federations are not rewards for political patronage. They require formal training in sports management and proven administrative competence. We must stop treating sports as a playground for the politically connected.
- Mandate Governance Training: A significant gap in governance literacy exists across the sector. All senior leaders must undergo continuous professional development in sports administration, policy, and financial accountability.
- Enforce the Existing Law: The law is not the problem; the lack of enforcement is. An independent body must be empowered to hold both the MOS and the NSA accountable for adhering to their legal mandates. Oversteps must have consequences.
- Publish Clear Operational Guidelines: The government must publish a formal governance framework that ends the ambiguity fueling these turf wars. Clear rules leave no room for power grabs.
A Call for a Ceasefire
Sierra Leone’s sports sector is brimming with potential, but it is being held hostage by an avoidable and destructive conflict. The infighting between the Ministry of Sports and the National Sports Authority is a betrayal of our athletes and a disservice to the nation.
We do not need a new law. We need new leadership. We need a ceasefire and a culture of professionalism to replace the current culture of politics and ego.
The law is clear. It is time for our leaders to stop fighting over the house and start working together to build it. Our athletes deserve nothing less.
