The Gambia Football Federation received a circular from FIFA on Friday 24th April informing Member Associations of its immediate financial relief for the impact of COVID-19 on Member Associations. In this regard, FIFA President sought and obtained the approval of the relevant FIFA bodies on the following:
- Operational Cost Entitlement for 2019 and 2020
Any remaining entitlement to operational cost as defined under article 6 paragraph 3 (b) of the Forward 2.0 Regulations shall be released in full for 2019 and 2020. In particular, the release of the second installment of operational cost for 2020 will be moved forward from July payment date as specified in the regulations. This means that all FIFA Member Associations will receive the second installment of 2020 Operational Costs equivalent to $500,000 before its due date of July. And all the mandatory requirements to enable a member association to access this amount are duly waived due to the impact of COVID 19.
- Extension of Deadlines
As required, all stipulated relevant deadlines in the Forward Program are to be extended in particular those concerning statutory audit reporting as per article 14 of the Forward 2.0 Regulations, as well as the treatment of unused Forward 1.0 funds in accordance with article 22 paragraph 2 of the Forward 2.0 Regulations.
In the light of the above, the Gambia Football Federation would like to inform its members that the federation is also working on a broad financial relief program for Clubs and Allied Association and the payment of outstanding GFF Support to Clubs and Allied Associations
- Specific FIFA COVID 19 Immediate Financial Support
As per the Circular, FIFA is currently working on a broader Financial relief program which will be extended to member associations in due course. When received the GFF will extend further financial support to Clubs and Allied associations to help them mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic.
It is worth nothing that the “immediate Financial Relief” being provided to Member Associations by FIFA at this time is the same funds released to all member associations as operational support of which certain criteria must be met to access them. It is from these funds that are earmarked as operational support to member associations by FIFA that the GFF provides support to clubs, allied associations as well as other staff related and football development activities are derived from.