Football has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone and the most recent edition of ‘Living Football’, FIFA’s new football magazine, looked at how targeted funding from the world governing body has kept the local game going.

The West African nation has received a portion of the FIFA COVID‑19 Relief Plan, a global fund of up to USD 1.5 billion to assist the football community.

“It (Sierra Leone) is a poor country, it’s a small country, so it (Covid-19) has taken its toll,” said long-serving Sierra Leone Football Association Isha Johansen.

“But the Sierra Leoneons have been quite brave, and I don’t know whether it is down to our experience with Ebola, but people have been very compliant, been very disciplined, adhered to the rules, and been very mindful and cautious.”

“The funding from FIFA has been absolutely timely, because there is only so much the FA could have done," she added. "For so long, we would not have been able to sustain supporting the football family to the extent that FIFA has been able to do, so it has kept our family afloat.

“Football is a unifying, it’s a healer, it reaches out to every creed, every religion, it doesn’t discriminate.”

To see more about the challenge facing football in Sierra Leone during the pandemic and much more, including an interview with Germany legend Lothar Matthaus, watch ‘Living Football’ magazine episode 3 here.