Mr. Bakary K. Jammeh is the GFF Projects’ Manager
Infrastructure and capacity building are key to sustainable football development anywhere in the world, The Gambia inclusive. These remarks were made by Mr. Bakary K. Jammeh the first Vice President of The Gambia Football Federation (GFF), who added that there’s no Gambian way of doing things and it’s important for Gambians to adopt the universally accepted principles.
Mr. Jammeh, who was speaking to the GFF Weekly TV Show looking into the happenings of the Federation, added that it is against this backdrop that the Federation recently signed contracts to upgrade six stadiums within the Greater Banjul Area and to build three new facilities in Busumbala, Gunjur and the National Technical Training Centre (NTTC) in Old Yundum, all within the West Coast Region. The Stadium to be built at the NTTC, he added, is part of the operationalisation of the National Football Centre of Excellence.
“These will include [the identified stadiums being] fenced properly with a grass pitch, a pavilion lighting, and modern facilities like dressing rooms, offices etc,” Mr. Jammeh said. He added that under the current Executive Committee, the GFF will soon start the process of constructing five football fields in the provinces, in the North Bank in Farafeni; Bullock in the West Coast Region; Kweinalla in the Lower River Region; Basang in CRR and Basse in the URR.
Asked how the selection processes are done, Mr. Jammeh said the GFF have a Technical Working Group (TWG), which is made up of senior staff and some key members of the secretariat, which he chairs. He added that it is this Committee that sits and look into the National Football Development Plan and work with the regional football associations to look at the realities on the grounds before forwarding their recommendations to the Executive Committee for approval. The Annual General Meeting (GMT) minutes that captures the Exco’s decisions, the Executive Committee meetings and the minutes of the TWG are later compiled together and sent to FIFA for final approval.
On capacity building, Mr. Jammeh lamented that the GFF have been working tirelessly to improve and build the capacities of referees and coaches, amongst a host of other areas but opined that it’s important for each sector to fasten up and close the ever increasing gap between them. “Papa (Bakary Gassama) is doing well but the gap between him and other referees is very wide, coaches also needs a lot of improvement,” he said.
Watch out for Mr. Jammeh’s 45 minutes marathon interview with the GFF’s Communications Director, Mr. Baboucarr Camara that will air on our official YouTube Channel on Tuesday 12th March, 2019 at midday. The interview looked at a wide range of areas that would be of interest to not only football lovers but Gambians in general.
Reporting by Ebrima Suwareh
Editing by Baboucarr Camara
