The President of The Gambia Football Federation (GFF), Lamin Kabba Bajo, has described as another milestone achievement, the launch of a first ever Gambia Youth League football competition in the country. The GFF boss last week was at the home of Gambian football, the National Technical Training Centre (NTTC) in Yundum to officially launch the competition that sees 20 youth teams from the domestic first and second division leagues as well as academy structures taking part.
The competition was conceived and implemented following a groundbreaking partnership between the GFF and Afriskaut, a technology company which uses Artificial Intelligence to scout players in Africa. Speaking in an interview with the GFF Media, President Bajo, who’s leadership has seen Gambia achieve unprecedented development in all spheres of our national game, revel in the launch of another competition that is geared towards grassroots football development as enshrined in our National Football Development Plan (NFDP).
“This is another groundbreaking event for the GFF because it is the first of its kind. We’ve so many youth activities ranging from schools’ tournament, to the TDS [Talent Development Scheme] and other tournaments and activities. The beauty of it is that we’re not doing it alone. We’ve local and international partners, and this shows you we at the GFF are opened for collaborations with partners,” Mr. Bajo, under who’s administration The Gambia secured a maiden and back-to-back AFCON appearances and a FIFA U-20 World Cup last 16 berth said. “We’re very ready to collaborate and also delegate some of our responsibilities or tasks to other third parties, and this will open the face of GFF to the international community.”
Speaking further, President Bajo described the partnership between the GFF and Afriskaut as one based on mutual trust and confidence. “It’s a good initiative and we’re grateful and happy to our partners for showing trust in us to deliver the project in The Gambia. We also thank the clubs, [because] this will also help them to build their reserve teams and to give playing time to most of their players who wouldn’t ordinarily have enough playing time in the league,” Mr. Bajo said.
“The various grassroots and youth national team coaches will also have the opportunity to scout for more players. And at the end of the current league, a review would be done to make adjustments in the subsequent editions.”
As part of the competition, 46 matches will be played in a period of 10 weeks, with matches being played on Fridays, Saturdays, and Saturdays at the NTTC. In the opening week, Samger drew 1-1 with Colley Stars while Team Rhino thrashed Better Tomorrow 5-2 with Banjul United and TMT sharing the spoils. Elsewhere, Brikama United overpowered Banjul City FC 5-1 while Medina United FC was held to an entertaining 1-1 draw by Team Menmar FC to cap off week one.
Week two got underway today with Fortune beating Fajikunda United FA 2-1 and Tallinding United recorded a comfortable 2-0 win over LK City FA. Three more matches will be played on Saturday and Sunday to wrap up action in week two.
