A football competition dubbed the Girls Empowerment Tournament (GET) is currently underway in the Kombo Central Zone II. The tournament comprised of 13 villages within the community and is organised to give girls opportunities to showcase their talents especially in football just like the boys.
The tournament, according to the organisers is geared towards complimenting the efforts of The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) in the development and advancement of women’s football in The Gambia, especially at the grassroots level.
Speaking to www.gambiaff.org, Besenty Gomez a member of the organising committee stated that they believe that if girls are given equal opportunity accorded to boys on the pitch, a lot of talents would be discovered and harnessed for the greater good of the country. “This idea is what gave birth to the tournament, empowering girls through football for holistic development. Thus I urge other sports committees to emulate Kombo Central because the GFF cannot do it alone,” he said.
He further stated that the idea is also to come up with teams that will compete in the GFF division 3, 2, and 1 respectively. “Our focus is on sports and education as well as developmental football. We intend to organise age-based category competitions in the subsequent tournaments for U-17, U-20, and U-23, and it is opened for both male and female categories starting with nawettans. There are also plans for children’s sport and cultural summer camp, the annual Kombo Central II veterans’ reunion and international sports and cultural festival in December.”
The maiden edition, which is at its first round stage, owing to a break during Ramadan comprises of Kitty, Manduar, Penyem, Busura, Marrakissa, and Kassa Kunda. The opening of the tournament in April 28, 2019 at Kitty Village was well represented and graced by the President of the GFF, Mr. Lamin Kabba Bajo, Abdou Karim Sey the President of the West Coast Regional Football Association, Coordinator of the region’s women’s football Adama Jarju, amongst a host of other dignitaries.
Kombo Central II is well known for producing good footballers and amongst them includes Alieu Badara Jarju, Malang Jarju, Joseph Jabang, Lamin Sonko, Jiki Jarju, Andrew S.K. Jatta, Karalang Jarju, Sulayman Manneh, Mansour Jatta, Ebrima Jim and Boy Kujabi who played in the domestic national leagues and our various category national teams.
