Minister Badjie, who made the remarks in an interview with our reporter was responding to claims that the Gambia Football Federation is sideline in the ongoing Independence Stadium renovation ahead of Gambia’s CAF final AFCON match.
“The 2nd vice president of the GFF, Ebou Faye, who is the Stadium’s manager and one of the most senior stadium inspectors in the country is part of the committee and is with the committee as they work together. All the things that are required for the stadium came from him,” he explained.
“Even before the CAF official came, the GFF went to the stadium,” he added.
Hon. Badjie stated that there is no way one can say that the GFF is not involved in the stadium renovation.
“It is an omission that the entire ministry did not probably pay attention to. Personally, I did not pay attention to it and I guess those who attended the meetings never also came back to say GFF is not attending meetings.”
He continued that the GFF could have rang the alarm bells if the moment they fell left, noting that as a ministry, they take responsibility for the blame because it is an unfortunate situation where people blamed them.
“If you know you are part of something but you are not involved officially, you can reach out. The idea of bringing someone for preliminary inspection was from them (GFF). They could have also used the same way to reach out to us when they realised that they were not involved in the stadium work.”
He said the reason Ebou Faye said the GFF was not involved somehow was because there hasn’t any formal letter written to them from the ministry.
“But they know about the renovation and are involved in the sense that they suggested for the CAF representative to come for preliminary inspection. We sent them a letter to invite the CAF official.”
