The Gambia national team’s quest for a third appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations, bites the dust Friday when the country’s footballers lost 2-1 to Comoro Island in Morocco.
The loss effectively ended the Gambia’s chances in the race even though there is one match left, to be played today in Tunis.
The failure to qualify has triggered a soul-searching episode in Gambian football. What went wrong? Who is to blame?
For a start, the Gambia changed management from the dust of the group stage exit in Ivory Coast, when the architect of the back-to-back qualification from the touch line Tom Saintfiet, resigned. He was much-maligned for notoriously sticking to a defensive non sexy football that critics said only relied on luck in both Afcon successes.
In came the young Johnathan McKinstry with a heavily laden club and international managerial experience richer and longer than his age.
His style is adventurous and tilted on forming an aggressively attacking football while keeping a close eye on his defense. As it turned out, his method resulted in the injection of new players and a new life in Gambian football with many excited and even embracing the new found rhythm. It turned out that while the team played sexy football and possess the ball longer, creating changes galore, it could not manage to score a quarter of the chances created. Worryingly too, the defense let in goals much too easily.
Also, bereft of the chance to perfect his new style through friendlies, McKinstry is forced to use official competitions to inject his new ideas into the team, meaning any bad day in the office cost the country dearly in the race to qualify.
The above factors may have contributed to the non-realization of our dream of hattrick of Afcon appearances in a row.
That said, the biggest elephant in the room for the Gambia is the lack of a home ground for The Scorpions. Or is it really, because we qualified twice without the Stadium?
Anyway, that was before some D300 million has been spent on transforming the facility. The Gambian populace found it terribly wrong for the authorities to have failed twice to get the facility to confirm to Caf criteria even when they are armed with hundreds of millions of dalasis. Why couldn’t the Ministry of Sports and the Gambia Football Federation work together to get the stadium renovation work to Caf standard? The GFF has the capacity and connection to access Caf stadium inspectors or officials to give guidelines. Granted, there have been credible suggestions that the GFF has not been given due recognition or a leading role in the renovation project, but the third most influential person in the GFF is the General Manager of the Stadium. So even if the ministry sidelined them in the renovation project, the natural link between the two institutions through the General Manager of the stadium should be enough to provide guidelines to meet Caf criteria.
The pitch, the latest objection from Caf, would have to be redone at additional cost to the country’s tax payers, hopefully in time for the rest of the world cup qualifiers in which we have no chance at all.
Let’s face it, the Stadium’s most productive and key importance is hosting international football matches. So even though the current renovation and transformation will enhance its physical integrity and lengthen its life span, the Stadium must first meet Caf criteria for the work to mean anything.
The stadium debacle should therefore serve as a rude awakening to all concerned that it is imperative that national interest supersedes everything.
The failure to qualify defied all the expectations and even entitlement of the fans now that that the country has tasted the party twice. It also means a missed opportunity for the Coach McKinstry and the Gambia Football Federation. McKinstry whose TOR reportedly includes qualification to Afcon feels seriously disappointed. Should he stay or go?
The current GFF leadership too who are leaving in two years’ time, would have loved to have ended their term with another Afcon qualification, to establish a record that would remain solidly unrivalled for long.
The next Afcon is not until 2027, when momentous changes including certainly a new GFF management would have been in place.
As of the Ministry of Sports, the stadium debacle has no doubt taken a lot of glory from an otherwise very good track record with huge successes in football, volleyball, athletics among others.
The disappointment from the Afcon failure has cut a deep hole in the heart of many Gambians but it must not make us lose heads. Life, whether it is football or anything else, must go on.
