Until now, travelling teams only pay their airfares while the rest, their accommodation and all the rest are taken care of by the host nation. A clause in the new rules states: “The visiting association is responsible for organising the accommodation of its team. The host federation is obliged to assist the visiting team for the reservation of the rooms.”
.The Gambia had its first experience under the new rule last week when Real de Banjul had to pay USD20.000 to a Bamako hotel ahead of their abortive trip to Mali to play BYC of Liberia.
Again Real de Banjul will have to face a similar experience later when they travel to Algeria to meet Setif.
According to an expert in football management, the new rules by Caf could remove the frequent row over alleged poor accommodation that is often heard between qualifying nations in the same group. ”But again it means that teams must have the financial muscle to pay for the entire package of their trip before embarking on it,” he noted, adding that the burden of accommodation, local transport etc could sometimes be higher than air fares.
However in the case of The Gambia, the GFF has agreed to foot the bill of international match officials during official international home matches of Gambian clubs.
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