25 May 2025
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Sports, Madam Augusta James Teima, says her official tour of the Aspire Academy facilities has inspired her with the possibilities for her own country.
The Minister’s time at the Academy was part of an official visit to Qatar that she undertook, which included a meeting with Qatar’s Ministry of Sports and Youth, with the aim of gathering ideas to develop sport in Sierra Leone.
The tour highlighted not only Aspire Academy’s world-class facilities and state-of-the-art equipment but also its philosophy of balancing education with sport—an approach that sets the Academy apart from most other sports academies.”
“I want to take this opportunity on behalf of my government to thank you very much for hosting this tour for us to be here at Aspire to see the wonderful settings, the wonderful things you put together for sport development in this country,” she said.
“I am so inspired, and definitely what we have seen will make us more focused and actually try to see how we can imitate you because this is really wonderful.”
“Sports have the power to take people to different places and offer people different perspectives.
“This is a step forward, and we'll see how we can follow. We are determined to do all that is necessary to help out in the development of sport in my own country.
“From what we have seen here, it is actually telling us that we need to have a system to keep the talent going.”
Madam Augusta James Teima was joined on the tour by Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai, the Executive Director of the National Sports Authority of Sierra Leone and Ambassador Waleed Shamsid-Deen, Special Envoy for Trade & Investment for Sierra Leone.
The trio’s meeting with Ahmed Al Jamal, Under Secretary of Qatar's Ministry for Sports and Youth, resulted in a pledge of support for the development of Sierra Leone’s sports infrastructure through technical assistance and exchange programs, inspired by Qatar's World Cup experience.