Also, sport, particularly football, brings to a nation peace, unity and foreign exchange with footballers plying their trade in Europe and other parts of the world. Additionally, people should reason that football is no longer just leisure; it is now a lucrative enterprise. The more a country invests in sport, the more it gets in return. There is need to promote sports competitions, from schools to football academies, in the country.
It is disheartening to state that Gambian football teams, namely U17, U20 and the Senior Team, have all been eliminated, due to their dismal performance in their past matches, which were all played oversees with no home crowd. This brings to mind the importance of a team playing in front of its home crowd. Playing home matches at home, a team could harness home advantage through home crowd support. It can as well generate revenue for the nation.
There is urgent need for the work on the field of the Independence Stadium to be completed accordingly to meet FIFA and CAF requirements. The problem of the grass on the field should be solved as soonest possible, although CAF has promised to assist.
Mr President, the last time The Gambia played a home game at the Independence Stadium was on 15 March 2021 against Angola, winning 1-0. The technicians worked very hard for the players to concentrate and to score goals.
Since then, all our home matches have been played outside, as the country’s main stadium undergoes renovation. Furthermore, it is important to state that in the past three years, government has spent a lot of money on having the team play overseas matches.
Following the Scorpions’ failure to qualify for the 2025 Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations to be hosted in Morocco, Gambian authorities should urgently work towards completing the renovation work at the Independence Stadium to be able to host the Senior National Team Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier matches.
Playing home matches at the Independence Stadium will help Scorpions enormously in their quest to qualify for the next AFCON.
Mr President, playing our home matches away such as in Morocco comes with high bills, considering the cost of hotels and other needs.
Let’s remember that The Gambia playing its home matches in Morocco always puts us in a difficult position. And it will be very difficult for the Scorpions to qualify for the continent’s biennial biggest football showpiece.
For instance, playing home matches in Morocco means Gambian players need to acclimatize themselves to perform to expectations in their qualified matches. As usual, Gambian players would arrive in Morocco tired, which also contributed to the team’s failure to qualify for the 2025 Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations.
The Scorpions’ failure to qualify for the 2025 Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations is a big disappointment for The Gambia’s FA and even for football enthusiasts in the country.
It is sad to say but playing home matches in Morocco also contributed to The Gambia’s failure to qualify for the 2025 Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations. Thus, playing home matches at home will significantly boost the country’s hopes in qualifying for the Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations.
Mr President, fans are more interested in getting the Independence Stadium ready, as they want to watch and cheer their respective national teams playing home matches.
Even though a whopping sum of 280 million dalasis has been spent on renovating the country’s only stadium, it is disappointing that CAF has still disqualified it from hosting international matches, following the inspection and recommendation of CAF stadium facilities inspector who visited The Gambia on 31 October this year.
Thus, the authorities should make all efforts to improve the country’s national stadium to the required standards to be able to host the Scorpions home qualifier matches. The national team coach Jonathan Mckinstry and his assistant should work hard to make sure our players concentrate and improve in their games especially in their goal-scoring skills.
Also, more international matches should be organised to better prepare the team ahead of the Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Without test matches, the Scorpions is going to face tough challenges to qualify for the Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations.
Mr President, the situation of our stadium also brings to mind the need for a national conference on football to see where our problems and challenges lie. Since Government is heavily sponsoring the national teams, sports journalists should also be included in the national team delegations for away matches as it used to be in the 70s and 80s, especially the state media. Both the state radio and TV should cover our overseas matches. Through their coverage, fans back home will be updated on the performance of their players.
As we now face the World Cup preliminaries, we are determined even though ‘our chances may be slim’.
We also need more friendly matches to upgrade the team’s standard and prepare better ahead of 2027 Nations Cup, to be jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Good day!
The Point Editorial