The Director of Gambia-German Football Development Project has hailed the President of The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) for his absolute commitment to women football development in the country. Ms. Monika Staab, who was speaking in an exclusive interview with the FIFA website, went further to credit Mr. Lamin Kaba Bajo as the main reason he decided to choose The Gambia for such a project.
Ms. Staab has been living in Gambia since late autumn 2018, where she has been running the aforesaid project which aims to improve the structure of women’s football in the country. “There’s a lot happening in women’s football, but Africa’s asleep,” she told FIFA.Com. “I see massive potential in Africa.
“My heart bleeds when I watch the girls play football. All that’s missing are the resources to support them. The Foreign Office is financing this project in Gambia. That’s not something you can take for granted, and the DOSB run things alongside us. The President of the GFF, Lamin Kaba Bajo, was a major factor in my decision to accept this undertaking. He’s fully committed to women’s football.”
Staab has already accomplished a great deal in the six months since her arrival. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Federation and the Ministry of Education in which the areas of development for girls’ football in schools were determined. On top of that, grassroots football for girls is to form part of the curriculum in order to establish a solid foundation.
“They only have one or two hours of PE but we want to make the most of them,” Staab said. “We can only train 25 girls per session and we have to provide the equipment and things. We have the expertise and the schools have the girls. The signing of the MoU was a historic moment. It means that there’s now collaboration.
“The Minister for Education, Claudiana A. Cole, supported it and was a great advocate for it. I’ve now held five coaching courses for teachers, as the biggest problem is education. They’re all enthusiastic about football but don’t know how to conduct a training session. They don’t know anything about tactics or training methods. That’s certainly one of the reasons why the Foreign Office financed this project. I’ve had the first and second division coaches here and did video analysis with them. They’d never heard of it.”
Furthermore, the Dietzenbach native holds festivals and grassroots programmes twice a month in different regions of the country for girls between the ages of six and 12. The objective is to get girls back into school and to convince their parents that education is important.
“We have so many girls between the ages of nine and 13 who don’t go to school,” Staab said. “I find that absurd. It’s absolutely vital. It’s the main reason I’m here: to support women, to give them self-confidence and to teach the girls discipline. We want to try and give the girls in particular a fresh perspective. Football can help this country to develop. Football unites, gives strength and hope. I can provide some sparks but ultimately they need to light the fire themselves.”