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