Weah calls for players to govern
By Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport, Lagos
George Weah, the 1995 World and African Footballer of the Year, says that Africa's former players should be taking a bigger role in administration.
"In Europe, people who played the game govern the game," Weah told BBC Sport.
"But in Africa, people who don't know anything or have passion for the game govern the game, so it kills the game in Africa."
The Liberian idol led a selection of retired African football greats in a match in Lagos at the weekend to promote the World Cup.
Weah and the likes of Ghana's Abedi Pele are official ambassadors for the 2010 World Cup, but the Liberian believes that the continent's stars need to be much more involved in running the game.
"We have to come together and show the world that we were good on the pitch and we can be great off the pitch as well," he said.
"Football being run as a comical circus needs to change - when we decide to do that, then we will restore respect to football and it will take a different trend in Africa.
"But if we don't fight for football's soul now, it's going to stay the same way and we'll watch the game lose its relevance and power.
"The people who have been on the pitch and played it like their lives depended on it should come on board because they know what the sport means to Africans."
"Together we should start taking responsibility to revive the game here, because football means life, freedom and power to the people of Africa."
