By Lamin Cham
After much speculations and suspicion, the Gambia football federation GFF executive committee over the weekend confirmed that it will not seek another mandate at next year’s national elective congress in respect of a two-term limit it enacted in the laws of the federation.
The committee, led by Lamin Kaba Bajo, made the declaration at annual general meeting of football stakeholders, comprising club, regional and allied associations’ delegates .
“This will be the last time we will address the AGM as president and first vice president respectively, since our constitutionally mandated term is coming to an end in August next year. We thank the stakeholders for the trust, confidence and support and your steadfastness in keeping us responsible and accountable for the actions we undertook on your behalf,” both President Bajo and First Vice President Bakary Jammeh told delegates.
This is the most emphatic declaration the leadership of the GFF made with regards to the two- term limit issue which has raised a heated debate among stakeholders.
With the entire leadership affected by the law, the GFF will certainly have a new president and executive committee members next August.
The stakeholders took in turn to thank Kaba and team for the energy they dedicated to ushering in a golden era of Gambian football from 2014 to date culminating in two successive Africa Cup of Nations appearances.
Critics however accused the outgoing leadership of delayed project implementation, less prudent financial management leading to heavy accumulation of debts.
Commenting on these allegations, Bakary Jammeh, first vice president said the GFF has never been found wanting in any Fifa audit and its stakeholders have consistently accessed and approved its budget, expenditure reports and plans year in and year out.
‘We welcome the intense and scrupulous scrutiny of our management by stakeholders and critics which put us on our toes in our mandate delivery. We run Gambian football with little or no funding and had to judiciously use Fifa and Caf funds to run the game, and perhaps more crucially, fund the national team and age category teams which put a huge strain on our limited resources, hence the occasional overdrawing of our accounts’, he explained.
According to him, the positive gains recorded in the country’s football is unprecedented.” For the first time The Gambia qualified to Afcon, and then requalified in the very next edition. This, coupled with the good performances of the age categories and the boom in player transfers to overseas leagues are all testimonies of the progress made under our leadership,” Mr Jammeh said.
He said the decision to institute a term limit and to respect it, is a conscious act by the GFF Kaba Bajo leadership to stamp a progressive legacy in the governance of Gambian football to serve as a bench mark for future Gambian football leaders.
