Sierra Leone has reinstated the country’s Football Association executive board, in a bid to avoid a FIFA ban for  governmental interference according BBC Sports Africa. 

The decision was taken during a meeting on Wednesday which was convened by the Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma.

Had Sierra Leone not done so by FIFA’s deadline of 16 December, the country would have been suspended from all international football activities.  FIFA is taking a tough stance on any government interferences in national football associations and had in the past suspended national associations, Kuwait,  Cameroon and most recently Nigeria were suspended from all international football, following the Nigerian government’s interference by sacking the executive committee of the country’s football federation in response to a court order, which led to the Nigerian Minister of Sports appointing a senior member of the civil service to take over the running of the NFF after Nigeria were knocked out of the World Cup finals in Brazil. .

The situation in Sierra Leone came after the National Sports Council (NSC) announced the dissolution of the SLFA executive committee led by Isha Johansen, last week. Citing it had acted in response to the move to dissolved a seven-man committee set up to identify delegates for the association’s next congress.

But Fifa, which demands that all football associations be independent, acted swiftly and insisted on a halt to the NSC’s plans.

In Wednesday’s meeting, it was also agreed that the executive committee would reinstate the seven-man working committee.

“I see this as a win-win situation,” Sports minister Paul Kamara told BBC Sport.

“President Koroma has done his best for the football family to reconcile and that was why he invited all the parties to the meeting.”