It cannot be said that never in the history of Football in the Gambia that a State Minister travels with a National team in a competitive Qualifier. What is certain however is the fact that such a disposition only came to be realized following the assumption of Office by President Lamin Kaba Bajo and his Executive Committee in 2014.
Mr Bajo drives his leadership style with an open door policy with general stakeholder participation to help the growth and advancement of Football in the Gambia while advocating for reforms in tandem with best norms as practiced by CAF and FIFA. This as encapsulated in the Kaba led National Football Development Plan (NFDP) with a view to partnering with government of the Gambia through the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
In the build up to the Gambia’s double header with Angola in the World Cup 2022 Preliminary Qualifiers, the government of the Gambia through the Ministry of Youth and Sports has made important commitments towards the successful staging of Gambia’s home fixture, return leg and its eventual qualification to the Qatar 2022 edition while fulfilling all requests made by the GFF.
Following its one nil lost at home to Angola on Friday, the Scorpions arrived in Angola on Sunday night September 8 ahead of the return fixture in Luanda scheduled for Tuesday 10th September. The Gambian team is been embedded with the Minister of Youth and Sports Hon Hadrammeh Sidibeh for the first time in many years for a State Minister to travel with a National Team.
Speaking to GFF website at the team’s Victoria Garden Hotel in Luanda, Hon Sidibeh said his teaming up with the Scorpions is been prompted by the management’s desire to have him as part of the delegation in order to motivate the team and demonstrate GFF and government’s relationship to forge together as one force in the development of football. “ I also want to throw in my influence as Minister to show that things have changed that its new Gambia and we want to invest in the National team”. He said there is hope that the Scorpions could do more than what has been performed in Banjul “because they have proven to us that we can beat Angola”.
Commenting on the relationship between the GFF and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Minister Sidibeh noted that people should always be together in order to be governable and “since that is my approach, I believe we can do a lot of things to move football in the Gambia. 