Award winning Ghanaian sports journalist Saddick Adams has hailed The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) leadership for judiciously using FIFA project funds to improve football infrastructure in the country.
Adams, who is nicknamed Sports Obama by his audience, was making specific reference to the Football Hotel in Old Yundum which was conceptualised in 2016 and became operational towards the end of 2017 as a Football Hotel. It was born out of an attempt by the Football House leadership to also reduce the financial burden on the Federation in terms of hotel accommodation at a time when it was spending heavily on private hotels as the demand increases due to the activate nature of all our seven various national teams in international competitions.
Today, the Football Hotel lodges all six of our national teams, three men and three women with the only exception being the senior National team. They’re lodged there at discount prices and the proceeds made stays within to be reinvested back into other spheres of football development. The hotel, which is also hosting conferences, seminars and accommodation for private individuals and groups has recently undergone a major facelift with the inclusion of a swimming pool with a bar & restaurant, which is near competition and the ongoing construction of a second football pitch.
Saddick, a manager of Angel FM/TV in Ghana writes for several international platforms including the BBC, SuperSport, BeIN Sport, AND CGTN, covering the West Africa sub-region was given the pseudonym name Sports Obama by his audience who saw changes he was bringing into the field of sports journalism at the time when Barack Obama was campaigning for change in the United States in 2008.
Writing on his Facebook and Twitter handles this morning, Adams is baffled that despite the huge investments made by the GFF, through FIFA’s financial support, and the qualification of the country to its first AFCON in Cameroon, some Gambians are still critical of the football leadership even with its limited resources. He went as far as making comparisons with his native Ghana who have benefited from cash injections from several continental and global tournaments, while predicting that The Gambia may soon overtake them.
You can read the whole post published by Saddick Adams below:
FIFA gives annual funding to Member Associations, especially Africa for the development football. It’s known previously as the FIFA Goal Project. Gambia has so many National Teams just like Ghana and the cost of renting hotels for National Teams comes at great cost to the FA.
The Gambia FA therefore decided to use its FIFA allocation for the year 2016 to construct a 3-star Hotel. It has over 40 rooms of different types, conference, an area for swimming pool, football pitches, dining area, game studio etc.
This hotel serves as a camping base for Gambia’s National Teams before matches and tournaments and FA doesn’t need to task government to hire hotel for National Teams. The Football Hotel is also used commercially as it’s opened to all guests to generate revenue for the Football Association.
If you ever travel to Gambia, you’d be able to book and stay at the Football Hotel.
The Football Association hired one of the top hoteliers in the country to manage the facility for profit purposes.
Local clubs in Gambia and in the region are allowed to camp there at discounted prices when they’re preparing for competitions. Despite such a nice infrastructural initiative, I notice the Gambian football fraternity continue to criticise the football leadership claiming they could have done more.
Gambia have never been to the FIFA World Cup. They have only qualified for one AFCON and that was the recent one. Qualification to AFCON and World Cup comes with huge million-dollar rewards and this is to say Gambia has never enjoyed any such.
Come to Ghana, 3 World Cups, 24 AFCONs, so called pioneers of football in Africa and what-have-you. Possibly, the first African country to access this FIFA funds as far back as 2005 when Gambia had none.
The facility the GFA [Ghana Football Association] put up at Pampram is the biggest symbol of corruption in the country. It was declared not fit to even camp teenagers and our junior national teams stay in private hotels at huge cost to the Ghanaian tax payer. The Black Stars have never set foot there because it will be embarrassing to send them there.
Ghana’s years of football has absolutely nothing of this legacy to show because corruption in this sector, is legendary. No wonder karma continues to score and shame us at tournaments.
Too early but not too early to continue to inform you that, Ghana is fantastically corrupt and Ghana celebrates corruption. It is time Ghana wakes to realize that it has lived in mediocrity for years. Leadership failure is this country’s biggest challenge and the corrupt leaders continue to be celebrated by some stupid masses and it will continue until we crash-land.
Almost all these little countries will surpass us and until we stop being corrupt and stop fooling around with titles and slogans that we are this we are that, we will forever be taken for granted.
