Let sanity prevail in Gambian Sports

Today, the Point want to take issues with the brouhaha surrounding The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) elections slated for 18th August 2018.

The recent announcement by the National Sports Council (NSC) to have suspended three executive members of the current GFF Exco without the consent of the Ministry of Youth and Sports spells of a poor coordination between the council and ministry. The odd question that many sports enthusiasts are asking is what is going on?

The ongoing investigation surrounding the alleged none-payment of a withholding tax on behalf of GRA by the GFF has been largely blown out of proportion and almost seized from the grasp of GRA; an authority dealing with their own issues as mandated.

It is reported that the decision to have the trio suspended was recommended by the National Assembly Select Committee on Youth and Sports and the Justice department.

Many are forced to ask about the rationale behind such a move by a council whose tenure has long expired since June 2018.

The announcement before making the rounds on the dailies, had the ministry send a revocation order to the council perhaps in a move to ask them to back-off and allow sanity to prevail.

Suspension, expulsion and court actions are last resort in every matter in sports. The latter cannot be mentioned hence it is an anathema and well spelt out. As a ministry not endowed with financial muscle to support or fully execute its duties towards sports, not only GFF finds it’s prudent to call for tolerance.

Off late, election into sporting offices has been marred with the most undesirable of pronouncements and character assassination.  Small ambitious Gambia that we believe in doesn’t deserve such scenery.

Sometime ago, head of the sports press, Mr. Musa Sise appealed to all stakeholders to breed in sanity into the country’s sports when the whole episode began with the former sports minister’s ill-placed comments.

Last week, The Nigerian football Federation stakeholders took the bold step to ban members who resort to court action in a football related matter. Many readers are conversant with the consequences of the path this reported suspension would have led us to but it is our fervent believe that every supportive and caring Gambian Football fan would love to see stability, a graded progress, with our limited resources at hand.

The Ministry being very aware of their responsibilities under the climate which we are operating have demonstrated their willingness to breed sanity and tolerance in the game and this should be seen in all sports

It is suffice to suggest that there exist no single group of individual who can claim to bring in the much desired success in Gambian football without the support of all those who care.

Interested individuals in sports must not discriminate in their support of Gambian sports and its progress. The leadership at GFF should not be used as a scapegoat to deny athletes in fulfilling their ambitions as they strive for success.  In The Gambia, we cannot claim to be an island.

In the interest of football we should unite to develop the game. Witch-hunting is not part

of sports and government should not interfere in the administration of football. Its role is to finance the game to get good results. We are appealing to the two camps belonging to Lamin Kabba Bajo and Malick Syllah to solve the crisis in an amicable manner because enmity is not  good for the development of  sports.

“Lets unite for the development of sports in The Gambia.”

Point