Despite not making it to the next stage of the World and
African Cup preliminaries round for South Africa and Angola 2010 due to the
newly rules introduced by CAF in the middle of the qualifiers, the Gambian fans
have urged the GFA to try all possibilities to maintain the senior national
team coach Paul Put and asked him to help prepare the U17 as the only chance of
The Gambia making it to continental tournament, as the U-20 finally failed at
home to qualify for the second time of the U-20 youth championship.
Speaking to Pointsports after the Gambia-Ghana game at the
Independence Stadium in Bakau, the most topic discussed was that the FA must
try all possibilities to make sure that the coach is given the maximum support
by extending his contract as he has already taken Gambian football to another
level and should be asked to help the U17 to avoid what happened to the U20.
Abdoulie Sarr told Pointsports that "We are very happy with
his job in the short time he took over. We have seen what he has done for us
today; we did not qualify but we made history in the world. It is just that the
weakness of CAF. I don't know how you can introduce a new system at the middle
of a tournament, that's not fair. Africans should know that the people
governing African football are there for them self not to promote the game of
football in Africa."
Sainabou Sey who also shares her views with Pointsports said
that "It is time for the Gambia
to know the difference between a local coach and a foreign coach. We saw Paul
in the short time he took up the team, the motivation and the spirit he put in
the team I am happy that we have a coach like him. His contract should be
extended to enable him to complete his job It is not late, Let him help the
U-17 to qualify."
Alieu Chama of Serekunda said that the" Gambia
has a young team; a team that we know that if the coach is given time he will
complete his mission. I am not happy with CAF. We should know that CAF belongs
to the Franco phone countries; they always favor them. FIFA should look into
such matters. It is high time the FA realised that local coaches cannot handle
our teams any more. Let us beg Paul Put to assist the U-17 for them to
qualify".
Momodou Jallow a Senegalese residing in the Gambia
for 30 years said that "I have been following Gambian football since and saw
the difference. I am sure with the help and support of the private sector to
maintain the coach he will be like Bruno Metsu who took Senegal
from no where to the World Cup. It is just the surprise rules that CAF
introduced that stop the Gambia
but the team could have qualified since. I don't know why these rules have been
introduced, but CAF is not doing justice to African football."
Malick Jobe said that
"even if we didn't qualify we are happy that we showed the world that football
has moved now .We have a team that can compete any where. All we need is to
keep the coach and give him support to know his players more and get prepared
them more. He is good and has made history in the books by denying the team
that beat the world stars France
from not qualifying. I think we should commend him for a job well done and
should be asked to help the U-17 prepare for our game in November to avoid what
happened against Ghana."
It could be recalled
that the Gambia captain and his team mates urged their sponsors Africell to
extend the contract of their coach because they like him and he is getting the
results within the short time and believe that with the support and extending
his contract he will take Gambian football to the next stage, which he has
already done.
