The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) informs its stakeholders, media and the general public that it has, this morning, received a communication from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) of its decision to postpone the qualifiers for the women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2022.

This decision, according to the CAF circular, is in line with the postponement of the men’s World Cup qualifiers, based on the actual conditions of certain stadiums in Africa and the restrictions related to Covid19.

In this regard, the first and second leg of our scheduled qualifier with Sierra Leone will now take place in the FIFA window of 18th to 26th October 2021, with the winner advancing to the second and final round in the FIFA window of 14th to 23rd February 2022.

The GFF last evening released the 28-man squad invited by Head Coach Mariama Bom Sowe to begin technical preparations today at the Late Ousman Saho field in Old Yundum ahead of the earlier scheduled June qualifiers. Despite the CAF circular indicating 17th May, as the date of its circular, at the time of the Coach’s announcement of her squad, on our website and social media platforms, the Federation wasn’t in receipt of that circular.

However, that notwithstanding, the team trained today as planned. But due to the recent development that has pushed forward the beginning of the qualifiers by four months, the Head Coach will now submit a revised technical preparation plan to the Technical and Development Committee of the GFF for review and appropriate action.