FIFA says elections cannot be held without an integrity check of all current and potential members of the FA.

Ms Johansen, Africa’s only woman FA president, was elected to office on August 3, 2013, but spent most of her tenure fighting her opponents who accuse her of maladministration and corruption.

She in turn also accuses them of corruption.

Johansen enjoys the strong backing of Fifa.

Sports Minister Ahmed Khanou said Sierra Leone as a sovereign nation couldn’t allow Fifa to interfere in its activities.

Khanou said the SLFA wasn’t under any obligation to conduct the integrity check as demanded by Fifa because there was no basis for this in the local laws.

“There is nowhere in the world where you promulgate a law or convention that is not domesticated,” he said, adding: “Sierra Leone has right to conduct its activities without Fifa interference”.

Khanou said while Sierra Leone respected Fifa’s role in helping the country develop football, it wouldn’t allow this to happen at the expense of its sovereignty.

The minister stressed that if the FA failed to hold its congress by Friday, he will take the “necessary step” in line with his powers, although he didn’t specify exactly what he would do.

The Sierra Leone government has in the past disbanded the FA’s executive, a decision that was later withdrawn in the face of Fifa threat to suspend the country’s membership of the organization.

Fifa doesn’t take lightly any country that interferes politically into football affairs.