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GFA confirms cancellation of Palestine friendly

Nov 12, 2010, 1:33 PM | Article By: Lamin Drammeh

The Gambia Football Association (GFA) has confirmed the cancellation of the proposed friendly international match between the Scorpions and their Palestinian counterparts due to unavailability of the required players for the November 17th friendly in Hebron.

GFA president Seedy M.B. Kinteh, in sharing the news of the cancellation of the eagerly awaited friendly match with Pointsport, said the reason behind the move "is due to the fact that Coach Paul Put will not have enough players" to choose from for Wednesday's friendly match.

"Following the cancellation of the previous friendly matches with Mali and Congo (due to huge financial cost), most of the players have booked their tickets to come to The Gambia for Tobaski and other engagements, with only nine out of 21 players available for the friendly," Kinteh revealed in an interview with this reporter yesterday afternoon.

The news will no doubt be seen as another setback for the Scorpions team that have failed to secure any friendly match since their 3-1 defeat in the hands of Mexico in Germany.

The Scorpions, who made unsuccessful attempts to qualify for the last World Cup and the Africa Nations Cup finals, are preparing for their remaining two matches in the Africa Nations Cup qualifiers.

They will play with Namibia in Windhoek in October and Burkina Faso in Banjul in September, as they continue hunting for their first-ever appearance in the African cup of nations to be co-hosted by Gabon\Equatorial Guinea in 2012.