According to Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS), they received a letter from CAF dated 24th October 2024 and the subsequent visit by CAF stadium facilities inspector.
The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) recently communicated a formal letter that indicated that the stadium renovation has meet the CAF standards expect the state of the playing pitch requires improvements to enable hosting of Category 3 matches.
Subsequently, the Gambia cannot host Comoros Islands in their 2025 Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match on15th November 2024 at the Independence Stadium.
In its letter, CAF stated “Following CAF’s inspection of Independence Stadium on 31 October2024, we would like to commend the Government of The Gambia, the Gambia Football Federation (GFF) and the stadium management for the significant improvements across various areas of the facility, including dressing rooms, spectator stands, media zones, hospitality services and other key structural elements.
These enhancements represent a positive step forward in aligning with CAF and FIFA standard.
However, they must emphasize that the overall condition of the field of play requires significant improvements to meet the standards necessary for hosting Category 3 CAF or FIFA matches.
Due to the current quality of the playing field, CAF is unable to approve the stadium TO The Gambia and Comoros Islands 2025 Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match.
To address this issue, CAF is prepared to support the GFF by providing a pitch specialist consultant to guide with the necessary preparations, to ensure the pitch meets all standards for hosting future Senior International matches”.
The Ministry apologies to the public, who have been eagerly looking forward to welcoming the scorpions back to home ground and will, moving forward, take the offer of CAF to provide The Gambia a pitch specialist consultant to support the improvements needed.
Source: GFF
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