This situation to a great extent is serving as an impediment to the performance of our boys in the Cup of Nations qualifiers, as it is presently telling on the results of the team while they struggle to win matches. Gambia football fans are therefore disappointed in the county’s lack of a standard stadium for international home matches.
The Gambia’s only Independence Stadium is among the 23 stadiums banned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from hosting international matches.
The ban came as a result of the “failure to meet the required standard to host CAF A type competition.” This was made known through a letter written to the Gambia Football Federation (GFF) dated 16 February 2022.
This development has been affecting Gambian football loving fans, who do not have the chance to witness and grace the Senior National Team play at home for a while now.
Mr President, the Scorpions of The Gambia first played their Afcon qualifiers home match against South Sudan in Thies, Senegal, on 4 June 2022, which The Gambia won 1-0 before playing their second home match against Mali in Casablanca, Morocco, on 28 March 2023, which The Gambia won also by a lone goal.
The Government of the Gambia is, however, currently renovating the country’s only stadium to the tune of D100 million to be able to host international matches.
According to the stadium management, in a Facebook post before the start of the renovation work, “The Management [has] been reporting on the state of the Stadium since 2012 as there has never been any major maintenance and rehabilitation of the facilities since it was built in 1983.”
There is a need for Gambia to have another good or better stadium. Having such a stadium can be realized through bilateral cooperation with countries like China or Turkey, who are specialists in building modern stadiums.
Mr President, playing our home matches away demoralizes players because they will always miss the home support expected to motivate them.
We therefore need more standard and internationally recognized playing fields in the major towns and cities to promote football, which is a big investment now and can bring in foreign exchange earnings.
The more we invest in football, the more we get better results. Government should engage the business community to help in the development of football.
We also need football academies across the country to nurture talents for all the categories of the national teams. The basic and secondary schools should have an annual competition in football as in the 1980s. All these will be geared towards upgrading the standard of the game.
Mr President, as chief patron of the Gambia Football Federation, you should or are expected to receive befittingly the players of the Under-20 team, who did us proud and brought us honour by finishing as runners-up in the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations U-20 tournament in Egypt on 16 March 2023.
Mr President, you should receive these boys together with their technical department and members of the GFF executive to show your appreciation for their brilliant performances during the Afcon tournament which was a historic moment for the Gambia Under-20, as they were able to reach the final of CAF Afcon tournament for the first time.
Their audience with you as the President will be important because it will boost their morale as your words of encouragement, advice and awards will be very important as they prepare for the Junior World Cup tournament to be held in Argentina from 20 May to 1 June 2023. It will be the second time that The Gambia will participate in the Junior World Cup; the first was in 2007 in Canada in which The Gambia defeated Switzerland and Portugal and lost to Mexico and Australia, which prevented The Gambia from going through to the second round.
Mr President, your government should invest immensely in football because it brings revenue and foreign exchange, as well as nurtures peace and unity among Gambians.
According to Bakary Y. Badjie, minister of Youth and Sports, the current renovation work at the Independence Stadium will be completed in four months’ time in July.
This will be a great achievement for the government as it would be a delighted and welcomed news for Gambian football fans who will now be anticipating witnessing and gracing the National Teams’ home matches.
Good Day!