By Alhagie Babou Jallow
Today The Gambia is part of the respectable names in the world of football, thanks to the vision, strategic planning, and hard work of the Kaba-led executive in partnership with the government of The Gambia and all other stakeholders. The nation is no more an underdog in the continent,” these were the sentiments of the Director of Communication and Marketing of the Gambia Football Federation,
Mr Baboucarr Camara.
In this interview with Gambia Daily Sports, Mr Camara highlighted some of the achievements of the Gambia Football Federation while submitting the way forward.
He said as part of their campaign promise ahead of the 2018 Gambia Football Federation (GFF) elective congress, Team Kaba promised to ensure Scorpions’ first-ever qualification to an AFCON final by 2021 or at the least 2023. “With commitment and dedication, the team was able to deliver on the promise when Gambia qualified for AFCON in 2021 for the first time”. He recalled that the Scorpions delivered AFCON place on the target year in Cameroon where it finished overall sixth place, breaking several African Cup of Nations records on the way. “Having become the first African team to start from the preliminaries and qualify for the tournament, in Cameroon, Gambia became the first AFCON finalists to win their first match after Equatorial Guinea as hosts in 2012. The National Team has also moved 49 places on the FIFA World Rankings in the last four years and secured its first competitive away win as a country in a 3-1 win over Angola in Luanda in 2019”.
Mr Camara went on: “After our win over Chad in the playoffs, we’ll now be saying adios to the playoffs going forward and the Scorpions are on course for another AFCON appearance starting the latest round of qualifiers with three points from two matches. To cap the Gambia’s phenomenal rise in world football, the country was nominated in four categories for the CAF 2022 Awards, Best Team, Best Coach, Player of the year, and Young Player of the Year.’’
He said the GFF is working very hard to make sure the U20 team qualifies and wins AFCON U20 Championship and qualifies for the FIFA U20 World Cup.
He went on to say building on from the 2018 WAFU Cup win, Mr. Matarr M’Boge’s charges secured qualification to the 2021 AFCON finals in Mauritania by winning the WAFU A title in 2020. The Young Scorpions finished third in Mauritania, equaling our highest-ever finish in 2007. He reminded that the team also qualified for the 2021 World Cup in Indonesia but the competition was cancelled as a result of the Covid19 pandemic. “Several players from that team have since signed professional contracts with European clubs. The U-20 technical set-up also consists of ex-Scorpions, prominent amongst which is former goalkeeping great George Lobba who serves as the Goalkeeper coach”.
However, Mr. Camara said that their efforts were frustrated after the unjustified disqualification of our team for purportedly failing an MRI test in the regional WAFU qualifiers. These results were delivered to us after we already secured qualification to the semi-finals and ironically the same players who were deemed overage passed two separate MRI tests conducted by the same hospital under the supervision of CAF doctors. Former Gambia skipper Abdoulie Bojang has been appointed as the Head Coach of the team in 2019 and he is being assisted by another Gambian legend in the person of Abdou Jammeh (T-Boy).
On the issue of the Queen Scorpions, Communication Director said the team lost in the final round of the qualifiers in the last two consecutive editions. “After the formation of the Women’s National Team, we played our first international friendly in 2017 against Guinea-Bissau. However, the team was included in the FIFA Rankings by the global football governing body in 2019. We’re currently ranked 17 in Africa and Number 122 in the world, thus, indicating a great leap in women’s football development,’’ he stated.
Mr. Camara further reported that the U-20 women’s team was also registered to take part in the World Cup qualifiers for the first time and missed out on a place in France, 2022, to Morocco in the final round of the qualifiers, and that the team lost to Ghana in the final stage of the AWCON qualifiers two years prior.
