MOGADISHU, Somalia, Jan. 16 -The Somali Football Federation (SFF) has stopped the on-going 2024 Inter-State tournament which kicked off early this year.
Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar, the SFF spokesperson says the decision to stop the tournament was reached on January 15th, 2024 after a lengthy meeting by the SSF executive Committee and Presidents of regional football Associations.
It was decided during the meeting that took place at the SFF headquarter in Mogadishu that the tournament can only be held if the Ministry of Youth and Sport stops politicizing the sport and leaves the responsible body SFF do its business freely and in accordance with FIFA, CAF and the SFF statutes and regulations.
“Somali Football Federation is the sole national body that is responsible for all football-related matters across the country. Football is all about peace, integration, friendship, development and love. The SFF cannot accept the sport to be politicized, ” said the SFF statement.
The Federation made it clear that it is responsible for the safety of football players, match officials, fans and team officials. « We are very sorry for the brutality and unjustifiable actions against our players and football fans who suffered from a number of violent attacks since the competition began and that is due to the event which has been politicized, ” added the statement.
SFF also pointed out that several shooting incidents had taken place at the Mogadishu Stadium for the past two weeks where at least two fans were killed and several others were wounded.
” It is now up to the Somali government to either respect the rules and regulations of the sport or the Inter-State football tournament, a competition that attracts the attention of tens of thousands of fans or it will never return, ” said SFF.
