(Thursday 17 October 2019 Issue)
Following appeals from Gambian football fans to The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) to shift the time for the country’s international match from 4pm to 5pm, Abdel Bah Director/ Marketing & TV for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has revealed the fixed time for host international matches.
Mr.
Bah’s reply followed a letter written to CAF by GFF requesting the country’s
international matches to be moved to 5pm instead of 4pm.
The
reply sent to the GFF by CAF reads: “These fixtures have been built in order to
a better exposure and audience for this competition, taking into consideration,
as much as possible, the constraints faced by the teams.
Please
note that we will be using only the following slots: 13.00, 16.00 and 19.00GMT.
For
those reasons, unfortunately it won’t be possible to change the dates and kick-off
time of both matches.
In
particular regarding the first match, this would impact very negatively Angola
for their second match, since they will arrive only on the eve of the match
during the evening. Thanks in advance for your understanding”, concluded the
replay.
An
official of The Gambia Football Federation told this paper that among the three
slots they will feature matches at 4pm because 1pm and 7 pm are not convenient
for them.
He
explained that if matches are played at 7pm they will require electricity
supply at the Independence Stadium which the National Water and Electricity
Company (NAWEC) cannot guarantee because of the load shedding.
