Following complaints made by the President of the Gambia Volleyball Association, Musa Cassa Taal for what he referred to as the National Sports Council's refusal to give the volleyball association the green light to take part in the 2010 Zone II Volleyball qualification in Dakar, Mr. Besenty Gomez, the Executive Secretary of the National Sports Council(NSC), along with the Development Officer of the NSC, Abdul Aziz Titao Mendy, have reacted to the volleyball supremo's claims, which continued to cause public debate among sporting fraternity in recent weeks.
The National Sports Council's duo, both of whom spoke to Pointsport in an interview yesterday, rebut the claims by saying that the decision to stop the volleyball association from taking part in the Zone II qualification, is due to the fact that it is not in accordance with the National Sports Council's Act.
"As regards to the registration of the association in international competition, the National Sports Council wants to make it categorically clear that it does not have funds for association or associations that do not have local, regional or national competitions," the duo pointed out.
Besenty Gomez, who was appointed as the Executive Secretary of the National Sports Council recently confirmed to Pointsport that the Volleyball President has written to his office, as he sent a total of 37 people that were to partake in the volleyball qualification with an initial budget of D2086.000, which he added, was revived to a sum of D2057.000.
The National Sports Council Gomez said he replied to the volleyball association, informing them that they would be grateful if they could fulfill the primary mandate as an association, to organise a national league that will qualify them to select a broad-based national volleyball team in order to participate in any international volleyball competitions.
This, according to Besenty, is in line with the ministry's quest to attain excellence in sports through mass participation.
"We are not fighting any association but just to ensure that national associations at all levels conform to the national and international rules, regulations, norms, standards, as well as Codes of Conduct governing that particular discipline. The volleyball can participate in any tournament they want but will not receive the backing of NSC, if they did not abide by the rules," Gomez told Pointsport.
Regarding the plight of Cuban coaches, which has also caused controversy between the volleyball association and the National Sports Council, a few days ago, the NSC's Executive Secretary, is however, aware of the importance of the Cuban coaches, given the fact that capacity building is key in our quest to achieve excellence in sports, through mass participation.
According to him, the associations are among the first phase which should maximally utilise these coaches, who want to be engaged day in, day out.
He further spoke of his office's readiness to support the volleyball association and any other associations in this regard.
Taal earlier told Pointsport that if the National Sports Council does not want to fund The Gambia's participation in the Zone II Volleyball tournament, it should not have warranted them to stop the association from taking part in the championship; hence his association is also looking forward to excellence in sports, which the entire country is talking about.
"I believe in implementation rather than exchanging war of words with the National Sports Council, which I believe would not take our sports anywhere," the volleyball boss told this reporter, in an interview in his office.
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