MONROVIA — Liberia Football Association (LFA) President Mustapha I. Raji has called for a holistic review of the circumstances that led to the death of 17-year-old footballer Amara Kamara.
Kamara died on January 28, 2025, while en route to Ghana for spinal cord surgery after sustaining an injury during an LFA First Division League match between his club, Black Man Warriors, and Bea Mountain on January 8, 2025.
The incident occurred at the D-Tweh Sports Pitch in New Kru Town, Bushrod Island, where the player reportedly suffered a spinal injury in an aerial challenge while leveling the score at 3-3 for Black Man Warriors.
Critics of Raji’s administration have since blamed the football association for failing to ensure medical preparedness at the time of the injury. There was no ambulance at the stadium, forcing Kamara to be transported to Redemption Hospital in a regular vehicle.
Responding to the criticism during an engagement with the sports press on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, Raji expressed regret over the young footballer’s passing but insisted that the LFA should not bear sole responsibility. He urged sports journalists to be fair in their criticisms.
“We regret the situation, but we must also be balanced as journalists. We should look at the entire picture holistically. Let’s be real—I feel the pain, but politicizing such matters is unfair,” he said.
Raji emphasized that the LFA is not a healthcare institution and that ambulances serve only as first responders rather than a solution for critical medical emergencies.
“First of all, we deeply regret the death of Amara, but we must clarify that ambulances are meant for first response—they do not solve the entire problem,” Raji said.
He highlighted the broader issue of Liberia’s poor healthcare infrastructure, noting that Kamara’s injury occurred just a short distance from Redemption Hospital, yet the facility was unable to handle his case, necessitating his transfer to two other hospitals.
“The player got injured at a pitch just a minute away from a hospital. He was taken there, but they couldn’t handle it. LFA is not a hospital. He was then transferred to JFK and later to Catholic Hospital. So, I don’t believe this was simply an issue of ambulance availability. That’s the first thing we need to correct,” Raji stressed.
According to him, many hospitals in Liberia lack ambulances and basic medical equipment needed to handle emergency situations.
“The situation in our country is serious. Do we even have enough ambulances? We have clinics and hospitals, but how many of them have ambulances?” he asked.
Raji further argued that the issue of ambulances at match-day venues is not just the responsibility of the LFA but a national problem affecting the entire country. With over 50 match venues nationwide, he maintained that ambulances should be stationed at these locations by hospitals and clinics, not the football association.
He also pointed out that Liberia’s broader healthcare crisis has led to preventable deaths beyond football, including among pregnant women, children, and the elderly, in both urban and remote areas.
“Many people die daily because they lack access to healthcare. Let’s not politicize this and focus only on the absence of ambulances at specific venues,” he noted.
In December 2024, during discussions with the interim leadership of the Club Presidents Association of Liberia (CPAL), Raji had proposed that clubs use their subvention funds to purchase ambulances for league matches.
This proposal, aimed at improving match-day medical preparedness, aligns with FIFA guidelines that mandate ambulances at all official matches to ensure immediate medical intervention during emergencies.
Raji disclosed that providing ambulances for league games would cost the LFA approximately $80,000 annually—an expense he described as unsustainable.
To mitigate this issue, the LFA has announced plans to introduce an emergency vehicle system for transporting injured players during league matches. He revealed that efforts to renew a previous contract with the Liberia National Red Cross Society (LNRCS) have been unsuccessful.
“To prevent a recurrence of what happened, we are securing emergency vehicles to transport injured players to nearby hospitals for treatment,” he concluded.
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