The football crisis in Sierra Leone has deepened after the annual congress of the country's football governing body scheduled for Friday to pave the way for elections next month was suspended by football’s world governing body, FIFA.
The term of office of the current Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) led by Isha Johansen, comes to an end on August 3.
FIFA says the Congress is postponed indefinitely until a task force can be sent to Freetown to sort out issues at the SLFA relating to integrity checks.
FIFA took the decision based on recommendations by its member associations committee of which the President of the SLFA, Isha Johansen, is a member.
"The MOU signed by its Secretary General, Fatma Samoura, Sierra Leone's minister of sports Ahmed Khanou and Johansen had not been adhered to and as a result the same problems appear to remain unresolved," FIFA stated in a letter sent to the SLFA.
SLFA spokesman Ibrahim Kamara says they are bound to comply with the Fifa directives.
Samoura visited Freetown last November to try and resolve problems within the SLFA and as a result, a road map to peace was set out with the minister of sport serving as a moral guarantor.
The SLFA held an extraordinary congress last March and formed judicial bodies including an ethics committee to investigate match-fixing allegations as part of the implementation of the road map to peace.
Sports minister Ahmed Khanou said he was disappointed at FIFA's stance and has insisted that the Congress must go ahead.
"I'm shocked, devastated and disappointed at FIFA as I was supposed to have been the first port of call as moral guarantor," Khanou told BBC Sport.
"I'm surprised because as moral guarantor I didn't send any complaint to FIFA and neither am I aware of any complaint by the SLFA.
"Sierra Leone is a sovereign state and should not be held to ransom. The Congress must go on as planned.”
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