As we continue our assessment of The Gambia’s chances of securing a place in the finals of the African Cup of Nations 2021, we caught up with Mr. Bakary K. Jammeh the First Vice President of The Gambia Football Federation (GFF).
The Scorpions will play Djibouti in a double-legged affair in October with the winner joining the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Gabon in Group D to determine the two teams that will qualify from the group to the group stages of the tournament proper in Cameroon.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with www.gambiaff.org over the weekend, Mr. Jammeh said the draw is an exciting one, while expressing his confidence in the Scorpions making it through to the group stages. “I think the first thing is that, one will say it will be a lot more of activities now that we are not in the group stage directly. If you look at the past formula we would have normally been in the group stages directly but CAF have changed the formula now but there we are playing against Djibouti,” Mr. Jammeh said.
“I think is an exciting draw because it could be a launch path for us to even do better; it means we have more preparations within qualification proper than the other members of the group. We have been building up as launch path to qualify so I’m excited about this draw and I think we will make it.”
Travelling to Djibouti can be a nightmarish experience for any country and Gambia is not an exception. There’s no direct flights between Banjul and Djibouti City and the only possible realistic routes is to travel via Addis Ababa in Ethiopia or Istanbul in Turkey. This could bring a serious financial stress on the Federation considering the limited finances at its disposal. However, Jammeh, who is the Chairman of the GFF Finance Committee assured that Football House will do everything within its powers to make sure that the team gets all it needs.
“We will have to cope because that is our responsibility. We must compete in Africa because that is our region, to be a CAF member you must take part in the CAF championships but we are not only taking part, we want to qualify for all major championships including the World Cup as well. So Yes! Djibouti is far, is costly but the GFF will have to leverage all possible means to ensure that our team don’t only travel but we go to Djibouti with the required preparations, with the required facilities and go to Djibouti and win and come back here and win again; that’s the objective,” he affirmed.
Jammeh was however quick to warn against complacency and also called on all stakeholders, including the government, to make sure that the team is well motivated going into the qualifiers. “There is no small team in football in the world at the moment, the last AFCON have actually demonstrated that clearly. We didn’t qualify but we draw 1-1 against Algeria both home and away, they end up been champions beating all other teams along the way so it shows there are no small or big teams,” he said.
“If you have the right preparations and the right mentality you can win and this is what we are trying to do at the GFF. You can see since after the Algeria draw we have played two friendly matches against Guinea Conakry and Morocco which we won both matches and they took those matches seriously so Djibouti is not small but I think we are up to the task.”
Asked about his thoughts on the group stages, Mr. Jammeh described Group D as a tough draw. “I’m very excited, I think is a tough group but is doable from a fan perspective if you look at how we have been doing recently and football is played on form with all these three teams in the group proper. If you average our total points some of us who follows this things you can see that Gambia is in line or even maybe ahead of some of those teams. Don’t forget we are going to the group stages with qualification at the top of our mind this time around and is one of the key conditions for the renewal of the contract of the coach to qualify us for the AFCON and this is not only plug out somewhere, it is plugged out from our preparations we have a bigger and better player pool now; we are a young squad. With the preparations they are having now it shows they have more experience and with the shear desire on the side of the Federation and the people of The Gambia to make our maiden appearance in AFCON, we strongly believe now is the time,” he concluded.