{"id":56456,"date":"2026-04-12T14:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash"},"modified":"2026-04-12T14:15:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:15:01","slug":"star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash","title":{"rendered":"Star Sport Academy Petitions Against Referee Before Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>Star Sport Academy FC has formally petitioned the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) to remove referee Foday Momoh from officiating their upcoming Leone Rock Premier League match against East End Lions FC on Sunday, 12 April 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The club argues that it is \u201cunprecedented and unacceptable\u201d for the same referee to handle two of their last three consecutive games (Match Week 22 and Match Week 24), especially when other qualified referees are available for intermittent assignment.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter addressed to the SLFA Referees Committee, CEO Mohamed Jusu Tarawally accused Momoh of making biased decisions during their Match Week 22 fixture against Kamboi Eagles FC in Kenema City, which the club claims were \u201ccalculated and intended to hinder our progress\u201d in the 2025\/2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>More seriously, the petition alleges that the referee made troubling statements to individuals around him, quoted as saying: \u201cNa me get dem game back, ar dae go kill dem.\u201d Star Sport Academy says such remarks, if true, deeply undermine confidence in his impartiality.<\/p>\n<p>The club also recalled an earlier first-round encounter against the same opponent, East End Lions, where referee Alhaji Musa Kabia was suspended for three months after controversially disallowing a legitimate goal.<\/p>\n<p>Star Sport Academy has requested an immediate change of referee for the Match Week 24 fixture, insisting that all matches be conducted in the spirit of fair play, integrity, and transparency.<\/p>\n<p>Copies of the petition were sent to the SLFA President, General Secretary, Referee Manager, Premier League Board Chairman and Secretary, as well as the media, CAF, and FIFA.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Sierra-Leone<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Sierra-Leone. Star Sport Academy FC has formally petitioned the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) to remove referee Foday Momoh from officiating their upcoming Leone Rock Premier League match against East End Lions FC on Sunday, 12 April 2026. The club argues that it is \u201cunprecedented and unacceptable\u201d for the same referee to handle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":56455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[292],"class_list":["post-56456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Star Sport Academy Petitions Against Referee Before Clash - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Star Sport Academy FC has formally petitioned the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) to remove referee Foday Momoh ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Sport Academy Petitions Against Referee Before Clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Star Sport Academy FC has formally petitioned the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) to remove referee Foday Momoh ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-12T14:01:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-12T14:15:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/sm_1775990610.064375.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Star Sport Academy Petitions Against Referee Before Clash\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-12T14:01:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-12T14:15:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash\"},\"wordCount\":270,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2026\/04\/sm_1775990610.064375.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/star-sport-academy-petitions-against-referee-before-clash\",\"name\":\"Star Sport Academy Petitions Against Referee Before Clash - 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