What next for the Scorpions?

The hopes of Gambian soccer fans were shattered on Saturday by the national football team, the Scorpions, after the team’s failure to qualify for the African Cup of Nations, which is to be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

The match in Namibia was crucial for the Scorpions, and to the surprise of many the team failed to qualify, which eventually led to their elimination from the qualifiers for 2012.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Gambia Football Association (GFA) through the Gambia for Gold fundraising drive for the national teams have given the team all the necessary support they needed, in their qualifying bid for Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

In our view, it is now time for the Gambia Football Association to dissolve the senior national team and the technical crew of the team, and to organize a National Dialogue that would   chart the way forward for the future of the teams.

The Gambia for years now has been struggling to qualify for the Nations Cup.

However, anytime we are optimistic about their qualification that is the time the team will let us down. 

The fundamental question we have to ask ourselves as Gambians, in all fairness, is whether we have the team at this moment that can take  us to both the continental and international competitions.

Let us not fool ourselves with the caliber of professionals we have as a country. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether these professionals in the Gambian national squad are playing in top leagues in Europe.

You will be surprised that some of these players we call professionals are not even playing active football in the clubs, while others are even without clubs.

We firmly believe that it is the role of the national team coach and the technical department of the GFA to scout out good players for the country, and this should be   backed with  the necessary financial support which will enable them to tour Europe in order to  search for good players for the country.

However, despite the disappointing results from Namibia, we would like to thank the players for their efforts since  the beginning of the qualifiers, and the companies and individuals who have contributed their resources in one way or the other for the team’s progress.

We should not allow the bad result to discourage us.

Let us continue to invest in  sports, since a day would come when we will get the desired results for our country.