Following the unfortunate incident that led to the abandonment of our WAFU A African U-17 qualifiers against Mali in Senegal, The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) wishes to clarify that on the day of the game, The Gambian left it’s Novotel Hotel around 4.00pm and arrived at the Alassane Djigo Stadium around 4:30 during which period the Senegal Vs Guinea Bissau match was on. No member of our team was issued accreditation cards prior to this despite several demands by both Willy Abraham the Head of Delegation and Mr. Sadibou Kamasso the Team Manager since Tuesday 4th September. They duo both kept being told they would be sent to them.
This hindered most of their movements in and around the stadium and they were always asked to leave the field and go to the pavilions. Just before the commencement of the Mali Vs Gambia Match, that was the time they were issued accreditation cards just for the 12 players that were eligible and asked to provide pictures for the HoD, Team Manager and Technical staff the same evening so they can be issued accreditation cards.
At their technical meeting on Saturday the 8th September 2018, the team was told the stadium was not up to standard for a game of this magnitude but the Local Organising Committee (LOC) will endeavour to have those issues sorted before the game. “Little did we know that one of the problems was the poor lighting system. Prior to the commencement of the Mali Vs Gambia game, the lights weren’t on as opposed to the normal routine of having lights on before the game starts. Mid-way through the game, the lights came on but they were not bright enough and the players complained of poor visibility a little after that,” Mr Kamasso explained.
“The goalkeeper and the captain drew the attention of the referee but he would not listen. At one point the captain had to kick the ball out of play to plead with the referee on this issue as Mali were 2 nil up and the players needed more visibility to put up a fight for the game and score goals. As Team Manager, my attention was called and as I walked downstairs from the VIP area towards the pitch, I met with the CAF official (a lady) and drew her attention to this issue. The CAF official admitted the light was bad and she was going to engage the LOC and the Senegalese Football Federation on this issue. “
Mr. Kamasso further explained that it was at that point Mr. Khalilou Fadiga and one Mr. Sowe from the Senegalese Football Federation came and pleaded with the HoD and him to ask the boys to play because if the boys failed to play and the match is abandoned, we would be in trouble. But our delegation’s response was, they cannot decide on this as it was up to the boys who were on the pitch to determine whether they can play or not. Then there was a lot of push and pull on this and we insisted that the lights must be improved for us to continue to play.
“Even some of the Senegalese spectators told us that the Nawettan teams that were playing there stopped playing due to the poor light and the stadium was closed and renovations were made. Despite the renovations the lights were still bad and the Nawettan teams felt it was not good enough for them to play. We couldn’t understand why we were being forced to play when the light was very poor and the players complained of poor visibility. Both Kalilu Fadiga and Mr. Sowe said we should convince the boys to play so they can rectify the light issue in our subsequent match but our response was there won’t be any subsequent match as this was a knockout match cognizant of the fact that Liberia withdrew and the groupings weren’t changing. At no particular time had the boys left the field of play during the whole incident.”
Having made consultations, the Team Manager told the head coach that they had made their points clear on this matter and it was up to the match commissioner and referee to decide if the game should continue but it would be very inconvenient and difficult for the game to continue under such conditions. On a number of occasions, Willy and Kamasso would try to go down to talk to the players and the organisers but they were always sent out of the field because according to them they shouldn’t be there even though they were there as Head of Delegation and Team Manager respectively. Upon my return to take my seat upstairs, Mr. Kamasso further stated, I heard the referee blew the whistle and the Malian team jubilating which obviously meant the referee deemed it was ok to play under those conditions when our players couldn’t see.
“I personally believe we were hard done by; we believe The Gambia Football Federation should take this issue up with CAF. On several occassions, we were being constantly reminded by the likes of Mr. Sowe about how bad The Gambia stadium was and yet they played. Some even accused The Gambia of being fond of this as The Gambia had done something similar in St. Louis. I made it clear to everyone that it was absolutely wrong for organisers to accuse The Gambia when they haven’t fulfilled their obligations,” Mr. Kamasso concluded.
