By Abu Bakarr Kargbo
Without doubt, football is the most popular sport in the world, which is why well-thinking people like the Executive Chairman of the Bo Rangers Football Club, Babadi Kamara have invested lots of resources in promoting the number one sporting discipline. His football club, Bo Rangers is a Sierra Leonean professional football club based in the country’s second-largest city of Bo and it has become one of the most popular football clubs that won the last Sierra Leone Premier League.
Although his football team is out of the Total Energies CAF Champions League qualifiers, he has not relented in appreciating their supporters especially when this is the first time in the club’s history to play a continental league and they are happy to have competed with pride. “This in itself is winning! We’re excited to have gone through the preliminary round but we’re grateful to have come this far. Yes, our journey has ended in the #TotalEnergiesCAFCL this season but we shall certainly come back next season. Our players are excellent and we appreciate their bravery and talented display in this competition. #TheElephants. Our darling fans, it was a good fight and we promise to continue with the club’s progress. Today, Bo Rangers FC is recognized globally as the Champions of Sierra Leone. Congratulations to our newfound brothers #CRBelouizdad. We hope to continue as partners in football for club and player development,” the Club stated on its official Facebook page. .
In his press release dated 21st September 2022, Babadi Kamara stated thus: “Our maiden sojourn in continental football did not go as scripted; definitely not the fairy-tale we had hoped for as it was cut short even before it got off the ground. No doubt, qualifying for the group stage would have been a massive achievement in itself.
But we have never been oblivious to the challenges that might scuttle our ambitions. However, we can still pride ourselves in achieving the step-by-step progress we continue to make in building a team that is worth competing with elite clubs on the continent. Effective leadership is putting first things first.
We decided on our priorities and have had the courage to go for them. We are proud to have achieved our initial objectives: structure the club, have a clubhouse and secretariat, win the premier league and eventually compete at the continental level. We remain committed to ensuring that Bo Rangers Football Club is mentioned in the same stanza as those of giants on the continent. We know it appears always impossible until it’s done.
Thus, our just-truncated participation is the beginning of getting to where we want to be-a footballing colossus on the continent. Yes, we are out of the Total Energies CAF Champions League qualifiers. Our performance may have been underwhelming, particularly in the second leg. However, we will look back with a deep sense of pride and forever relish this period in our club’s history. We savored every moment of our journey as debutants in continental football. We wanted to be there; we got there! This in itself is mission accomplished! We are honored to have been there as the experience is immeasurable and invaluable.
We are not sacred to fail because to do is to dare. We are certainly going to do an introspection. We hope to better this year’s outing in subsequent participations by changing our trajectory from our recruitment policy, and discipline to tactics. We will never allow people to intimidate us to downgrade our objectives. Our quest for continental glory has just begun! 1954 We would like to acknowledge the contributions of those who, in countless ways, helped us get this far. Playing in continental competition is more than what you see on the pitch.
The administrative work that is done behind the curtains is immense and requires the relevant expertise to settle those preliminary issues. The SLFA was really helpful in this regard. We, therefore, thank them for their unwavering support to us throughout the preparation and up to the participation stage. We thank our Board for the encouragement and constant motivation, thereby inspiring us to excel in everything we do. You continue to push us to heights we never thought possible. Thank you for all the great leadership and support!
Thank you for always noticing and acknowledging our contributions while teaching us how to improve. Thank you for always keeping the team in high spirits and making tough decisions. You talk us through potential pitfalls that we have not thought of. You do not rubber-stamp everything we recommend, you ask critical questions and entreat us to see the big picture. We would surely not be nearly as effective without your critical insight. We appreciate your service and look forward to your continued guidance as we look ahead to the start of the new league season.
To the fans, we thank you for your continued unwavering support even in the face of adversity. You always have high expectations for what we can accomplish; there is always a sense of optimism that we can do extraordinary things. Unfortunately, our debut participation in continental football did not live up to the expectations that you desired.
It was filled with some off-pitch situations that caused unprecedented distractions and disruption to our preparations. We are not making excuses. Our performance over both legs simply did not live up to our standards. We will continue to work to make up ground going forward. We thank the technical team and players who gave their sweat and blood to get us to participate at the highest level in football on the continent.
Do not hang your heads in shame. Football teaches us character and to know what it feels like to win and lose; you learned a great valuable lesson for life. To lose is part of the game; it is only temporary and for which you have no choices. However, it should give you the opportunity to go back, study it, learn from it and prepare to win. We really appreciate what you have done for us and are proud of you guys. Inasmuch as we will look at what we did not do well, we will equally think about the positives and how we can take them into subsequent games. As a team, we win together and lose together. The giant strides we continue to make as a team would not have been possible without colleagues in the Executive Management.
You guys are, without a doubt, the biggest professional asset to this club. We truly appreciate the time and effort you put into doing an excellent job. Thank you so much for the professionalism, commitment, and sheer hard work you are all doing. It is rare to find a group of colleagues who inspire me in the way you have. Thank you for always motivating me to be my best. With us all working together, the Board, fans, and supporters of Bo Rangers have a great football team behind them. We want to say a huge thank you to all those who, despite our local rivalries, shelved them and supported us as we represented the green, white and blue. We appreciate your demonstration of true sportsmanship and patriotism.
And to those with deep-seated animosity disguised in local rivalry, we equally appreciate you for inspiring us to continue to set the pace in football development in our country. We would continue to work tirelessly to etch the name of Bo Rangers in the annals of football history within and across borders. As we return to prepare for the start of the 2022/2023 premier league season, we wish FC Kallon, our only continental representative now left good luck in the CAF Confederations Cup. We are Bo Rangers. Always in the range!”
