The quest for robust sporting associations

The meeting to be organized this week by the National Sports Council (NSC) for national associations to regularize their mode of operation is a step in the right direction.

The plan that the council is due to embark on in the New Year is, indeed, a very good one, and is, in fact, long over due.

The new form designed for the registration of all national sports associations will greatly help the sports council to keep a good database for such associations, among others.

It is also important for the NSC, after the scheduled meeting, to inform the general public about the qualified national associations, under its new criteria, and are now officially registered with the council.

This is because the public and all other stakeholders in sports need to know which association have registered with council.

It is a sad fact that, in the Gambia, most of the so-called national sports associations only go through the motions of conducting elections and electing an executive committee, just for the members to engage in frequent travelling, instead of running proper and dynamic national associations.

Indeed, it is known that some of the associations are just like “briefcase organizations”, without even a secretariat where one can locate them; others do not even have clubs or teams as members.

Thus, the NSC as the body set up by an Act of the National Assembly to advice government on sports matters should implement the national sports policy to the letter.

We also feel that it was time for the NSC to have its own web site, since this would greatly help them in their day to day work.