Tuesday 22 October 2019 Issue
Secretary
General of The Gambia Basketball Association (GBA) said they are not going to
announce a new date for their Annual General Meeting (AGM), saying they will
only call teams interested in playing in the association’s league to come
forward, play and move on.
Abdoulie
M.B. Jallow said they have given all the opportunity to basketball stakeholders
to hold the AGM but they blew them away.
Mr.
Jallow’s remarks followed a decision by basketball clubs at a press conference
held last Friday, that they will hold an extraordinary congress on 2nd November
2019 with or without the GBA and National Sports Council to elect a new
executive.
He
stated that the GBA executive will not attend the said AGM because it will
be illegal, explaining that the
association called for an AGM on 6 October 2019 at the GNOC conference hall
only for clubs in question to come with players knowing that players are not
allowed at the AGM.
“People
who are banned from basketball and have no business also came to the AGM with
the intention of not wanting the AGM to go ahead as planned. As far as the
executive is concern, we have called up two AGMs and the clubs failed to show
up.”
He said the claims made by clubs are baseless,
saying they held meetings with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and presented
evidence to them with regards to the matter.
“We accept that in 2017, we did not hold AGM and the NSC instructed to
do so,” he said, adding that they did not also hold the AGM in 2018 because
they wanted to complete their league and hold their AGM but clubs kept
stalling.
Mr
Jallow pointed out that there were also issues of ownership of clubs, saying at
some point some basketball stakeholders forged signatures of some coaches claiming
to be owners when they are not.
On
the issue of clubs threatening to take the matter to court, Mr. Jallow said
“they can go to any court and we will find them there and defend ourselves and
in the end the truth will prevail.”
