Continuing its empowerment and promotion of women’s football in The Gambia, The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) in collaboration with German Olympic Federation and the Gambia’s Ministry of Youth and Sports is gearing up for another edition of the women’s football festival slated for Tuesday 30th April, 2019 at the National Technical Training Center (NTTC) in Old Yundum.
The festival will also culminate with a women’s football symposium on the same day after festivities at the NTTC. The festival and symposium is also in conjunction with the Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Welfare and European Union as partners.
The two events are aimed at empowering women’s football in creating more awareness and encouragement for girls and women to play football while the symposium is further geared towards empowering girls and women football administrators about prerequisite knowledge and standard practices of managing football across the country.
The daylong activity is expected to attract nearly sixty girls and women participants in the form of exhibition games where sided games would be played amongst girls. Higher institutions like the GTTI, MDI, AUI and the Gambia College students will also be on course for the fun day. This would be followed by a symposium at the Football Hotel where the Honorable Minister of Women, Children and social welfare Mrs. Fatou Kinteh will be the patroness for this special event.
The event will be further graced by the Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC), the EU Ambassador to the Gambia and the Gambia German Project.
It would be recalled that the girls festival was conceived in 2014 after the GFF successfully gained support from FIFA for a four-year legacy programme called FIFA Live Your Goals meant to empower women and girls in football and to further encourage others to play football. The first two editions of the FIFA Live Your Goals festival were held in the Greater Banjul Area while the third and fourth were hosted in Farafenni in the North Bank Region which was the first for the provincial regions and Soma in the Lower River Region where similar convergence was held. The final edition was held in Bansang in the Central River Region (CRR) that wrapped up the legacy programme.
Its main objectives are to encourage women and girls to play football and to further empower girls about football knowledge. The past editions have produced lots of girls from both the Greater Banjul Area and the regions currently engaged in football while all the regions hold up to their Women’s League.
