GFF urged to relinquish zonal championship
Following the cancellation of the national zonal championship, the Super Nawettan, by the Gambia Football Federation, arguing that it will clash with the official commencement of the national league, many observers have said that similar issues will emerge next year too, putting the future competitions in doubt.
The GFF said the decision to cancel the competition is necessitated by the fact that the progress of competitions in the various nawettan centres is very much behind schedule and there is hardly any time available in the football calendar to complete the nawettans to squeeze the Super Nawettan at the same time, without affecting the commencement of the league which is expected to get underway in November.
“The fact that the GFF does not control the local nawettan programmes at the various zones and cannot get them to complete their programmes in time, means that this situation will always surface, and if that continues, the Super Nawettan will die, unless the GFF gives it back to the zones to organise it under their regional zonal football organisations,” said Modou Colley, a zonal official.
Colley said the most sensible thing is for the GFF to leave the competition to the zones in their regions just as West Coast Region is doing. ‘The West Coast zonal championship is growing bigger and bigger and soon other regions will follow and in that case, there will be no need for the Super Nawettan. The GFF should realise this and address it by ceding the Super Nawettan to the zones,” he said.
The zonal is the most popular local football competition dwarfing even the national league by miles. The new GFF football calendar aims to get the local nawettan zones to complete their nawettans and play the Super Nawettan before the leagues start. It did not work in the maiden trial and fears are that it may not be possible even in the future.
The Standard tried calling the GFF head of competition and second vice president Ebou Faye who did not pick his calls. The Standard will seek the reaction of the GFF on this matter on Monday.
