Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) is again on a lookout for a new gaffer after the national government rejected the appointment of Ghanaian Sellas Tetteh as the head coach of the Leone Stars.
SLFA had announced on Tuesday that Tetteh had filled the vacant position previously occupied by local coach John Keister.
The 62-year-old had beaten off competition from a cream of more experienced coaches including Serbian coach Goran Stevanovic and former Botswana national team head coach Peter Butler.
However, in a statement, Sierra Leone’s sports ministry pointed out that the government was not satisfied with the manner that the selection process was carried out.
“The Ministry of Sports was represented by the Director of Sports and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry on the interview panel for the shortlisted coaches. The Ministry is in receipt of reports from both representatives which expressed dissatisfaction of the process which did not come to a logical conclusion,” read part of a statement released on Wednesday.
“The report of the Ministry’s representatives also observed that representative from the Sierra Leone Football Association on the interview panel came with a premeditated mind of appointing the said coach.”
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “The Ministry does not recognize Sellas Tetteh as the Head Coach of the Sierra Leone National Team A because the process was incomplete.” [/perfectpullquote]
“The Ministry of Sports want to assure all Sierra Leoneans that the government is committed to supporting sports in the country and the process of appointing the National Team A coach will soon come to a conclusion.”
The Ghanaian coach job was to include Leone Stars’ 2021 Africa Cup of Nations and 2022 World Cup campaigns.
The former Liberty Professionals trainer as making a return to the West African nation for a second stint after handling the Leone Stars between 2015 and 2017.
During his previous stay, Tetteh was in charge of five official games, winning two against Sudan and Chad, losing one to Chad and drawing their 2017 Nations Cup home and away qualifying matches with Ivory Coast.
