“Despite our tremendous achievements in both indoor and beach volleyball over the years we found it extremely difficult to attract sponsors to support both our national male and female league championships,” he stated.
“Volleyball has grown rapidly in this country over the years as statistics do not lie in sports and if you look at our numbers, we can safely say that we are doing really well, but one thing remains a major concern for the Federation, which is sponsorship, and we call on the private sector to come an join the most organised and fast growing sports in the country”.
Mr. Jallow added that lack of support can deprive athletes from concentrating in sports that they love the most and choose it as their carrier because they need to put food on their table and without support it will be difficult to achieve such a dream.
The Federation always prepares a very good team in both categories every year for the continent and world qualifiers in volleyball but their biggest challenge is financial support for both indoor and beach volleyball respectively.
He further said that volleyball is unlike other sporting disciplines, who receive annual subversion from their parent bodies. He gave football as an example which receives support from Fifa annually. “In volleyball we are not entitled to such from the continental body neither from The Gambia Government. All we do is the commitment from the Federation which is very difficult and a big burden on us,” he went on.
The 2021 league season was a very successful and competitive one as Olympic Africa retain their crown after beating close rivals Gamtel/Gamcel by 3 sets to 1 (3-1) at their home court in Serrekunda Kunda east mini stadium.
