The wished-for protest to oust the regime of president of the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) William Lai and his executive by a vocal former national midfielder and founder of West Honiara Royals Football Academy Joel Moffat Konolifilia was unsuccessful.
Konofilia’s long time cry and demand for SIFF president to step down hit the brick wall yesterday because his approach was illegal.
The so called vocal football advocator planned a peaceful protest yesterday but lack supports from his cohorts as Konofilia acted as one man army was warmly welcomed by Lai and his executive.
Lai and his executive were keen to receive the alleged allegations Konofilia bombarded in the social media, unfortunately Konofilia did not follow legal ways to have his questions addressed.
After welcoming the parties Lai told Konofilia and those who present during a short dialog to receive the alleged allegations in a black and white that he will not step down as president.
“Thanks for coming Joel and your group and friends from football,’’ Lai started the short dialog to receive the petition to oust him as president of SIFF.
“We were informed that there is a protest from your group, so we are here to receive the alleged allegations,” he said.
“But for me to resign as SIFF president will not happen,” Lai stated.
“I will not resign because I am elected by the member associations and honestly my executive has done nothing wrong,’’ the president insisted.
Lai said he is happy to receive written allegations about his leadership so that his executive can investigate for the betterment of football in the country.
SIFF’s vice president Eddie Omokirio stated clearly during his opening remarks they welcomed what Konofilia and supporters initiated by must be procedural.
Konofilia when welcomed by SIFF yesterday taught the occasion would be a good chance for him to unleash his mind with the questions he had bombarded in the social media which he also claimed SIFF president and his executive did not respond to it.
However that’s not the case as president Lai and his executive stood their ground not to allow Konofilia to continue talk but advise him to provide written allegations in a black and white which is constitutional and hand it to SIFF as soon as possible.
That decision does not go down well with the Konofilia as he begged the executive member and the president to allow him ample of time to deliver his questions but to no avail.
“What we called for was to come as a public, not with the petition, not with a black and white paper,” Konofilia said.
“We will come and ask you our questions and you must answer us and if we are satisfied on the spot then we will know what actions we will take.
“It wasn’t meant to be a petition brought to you.
“It was meant to be a public people with me, SIFF and we will ask the president questions one by one where I am going to ask the president and let the people listen.
“I have only four questions.
“So to talk about petition, it wasn’t our intention in the beginning.
“We were just going to come and ask questions verbally and will listen to your answers,” Konofilia stressed.
However, Omokirio insisted they don’t want to set precedent for others to follow in the future and decided to call off the meeting.
“We don’t want to set a precedent for others to follow which is also illegal,’’ he said.
“Just follow the right process and we will address your problem,” he added.
By CROFTON UTUKANA